Through the Turnings
by insaneantics21
Summary: It’s 2009. A member of "The Golden Trio" has been gone for seven years but things didn't happen the way others think they did. What happens when a new life collides with an old one? Rated M for sex, violence, blood, and language.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note & disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter characters and all that, etc etc.**

Okay so this is rather different compared to the "Fairytales" trilogy. There's a slight change in my style of writing. And the story is really different. It's something I've always wanted to try so now I have and this is the result.

I have a problem with self control, also. I intended for this to be a really quick story…didn't happen. Some chapters are really short and others are kind of long, it's just how it works.

I hope you guys like it!

**A longer summary: **It's 2009. Seasons, the world, people, everything. Everything is turning. A member of "The Golden Trio" has been gone for seven years but things didn't happen the way others think they did. What happens when a new life collides with an old one? Albus Dumbledore believed love could conquer everything but can it do the impossible again?

**Rated M** for violence, blood, language, and sex.

* * *

**-Chapter 1: Her Notebook-**

"What do you have for me today, Gin?" Harry Potter asked when the slender redhead sat down in one of the scarlet armchairs in front of his desk at the Ministry of Magic. Harry was head of his own department now. A department that had been created seven years ago dealing with the aftermath of some of the most horrific events the Ministry had seen since the Second Wizarding War had ended.

"Look at the calendar and tell me yourself," Ginny Weasley sighed. She flipped through her emerald green notebook until she found the page she wanted.

It wasn't the fact that it was June or that it was a Tuesday that made Harry take off his glasses and bury his head in his hands and sigh. It was the fact that it was the second day of the month. It was always the same on this day. Always. In seven years there was not one day when someone didn't come into his office on the second of the month and read to him out of their notebook. Before Ginny transferred to Harry's department it was Ron that would come in and read. Ron's notebook had been blue. It really didn't really matter who it was that read to Harry or what color the notebook was though, it was always the exact same thing.

"Okay, go on Gin."

"Second of June, two-thousand nine. Muggle male, thirty-two years old. In prison for the rape and murder of three fifteen year old girls ten years ago. Found on the floor of his cell, dead, with two puncture wounds to the neck and his blood drained from him. I made sure the Muggles did their exam to get all of their evidence then confunded the examiner and the dead guy's body is now at St. Mungo's to be checked but you know what they're going to tell us."

"Bitten. Killing curse. Blood drained."

"Yup."

"Are you getting any closer with your undercover work?"

"No. Whoever the hell this is they leave absolutely no trace, you already know that. No spit, no hair, nothing. I've gone through the Muggle records from all the way back when it all started and I have come up with absolutely nothing. I've been working at that Muggle lab for a year now and I swear I have less information now than when I started. What is the point in me still working there anyways?"

"You know what the point is, Ginny. It's the safest work you can do. Do you forget why you're working…"

"I know why I'm working for you, Harry. You don't need to remind me."

"Gin, you've got to make sure that anything they know, we know and you've got to keep an eye on them in case we've got to alter any memories."

Ginny checked her watch and sighed. It was noon. "I better get back to my desk. I'll bet you a hundred Galleons I have a letter waiting for me."

Harry only groaned and went back to whatever he was working on.

Ginny walked to her cubicle. Sure enough there was a letter on her desk with writing she didn't recognize in ink that was untraceable on parchment that was always clean. How it arrived was always a mystery to everyone.

_"You know I'm sorry but I have to. I don't understand why you have to keep looking into this. All of my victims deserve it. They're just rotting away in their cell and serve no purpose. I know you won't stop trying to find me but as always, try to see my side of things."_

Ginny clenched the parchment in her hand and slammed her fist on the desk and swore loudly. No one looked at her. A few glanced at their calendars then went back to focusing on their work. It was always the same on this day for them, too. Always. Ginny went back to Harry's office and tossed the letter at him.

"All of the victims deserve it! Who the fuck do they think they are?" Ginny yelled and started pacing.

"Ginny, you know as well as I do that because of protocol we can't say for sure what happened. Because they never found…"

"Dammit, Potter! You of all people should back me up on this!"

Harry got up from his desk and shut the door to his office. He pulled Ginny down to one of the armchairs and sat in a second one in front of her.

"As your boss I have to tell you that, Ginny. You know this. As your friend you know I believe you and you know I've done everything I can to try and find out exactly what happened. It's been seven years though, Gin. I may be head of this department but I still have to answer to higher up. They don't want us focusing on the first few attacks anymore. They consider the cases cold. All of them. The missing are just that and will remain so."

"Why am _I_ always the one that gets the letters then? Even when I wasn't working for you…Why was her wedding ring in the first one? It plainly stated..."

"I've told you over and over again, Ginny. I don't know. This…this case is so messed up. I mean it's less messed up than it should be…you know? I've gone through I don't know how many files and there's never been any record of anything like this. This vampire…they're not normal. Whoever it is, they're just not normal."

Ginny looked at the floor and sighed. "Do you think they knew what she left behind?"

"Again, Ginny, I don't know. Look, why don't you take the rest of the day off and go home? You know there won't be anything else for you to do here and you don't work at the Muggle lab until tomorrow. Tell your mother I said hello."

Ginny sighed again. Harry hugged her and she went back to her cubicle to get her things and the Flooed to the Burrow.

……………

"Rough day?" Molly asked when Ginny stepped out of the fireplace.

"I knew it would be, it always is. Where's Rose?" Ginny joined her mother at the kitchen counter and started peeling potatoes.

"Outside toying around with some of the old broomsticks. Don't worry dear, I've kept an eye on her. She knows not to fly without you here."

Ginny peered out the window and smiled for the first time all day.

"You think Hermione would be proud, Mum?"

"I've told you hundreds of times, you know she would be, Ginny."

After finishing the potatoes Ginny walked outside over to the old broom shed. A small girl, a little over a month from seven-years old and the spitting image of Hermione Granger at that age, hopped up off the ground and ran to Ginny's wide-open arms.

"How's my baby girl today?" Ginny said as she hoisted the child up and onto her hip.

"Good. Gran and me tended the garden! I planted some tomatoes! And there was this gnome and he came up and tried to bite me but I gave him a good kick just like Uncle George showed me how and the gnome went farther than I've ever got them to. Then I found a toad! Gran says I'm not allowed to keep it though 'cause it probably has a mum and dad and would get sad if it had to live with us and not them."

"That's wonderful Rose, I'm glad you've had a good day so far." Ginny smiled and kissed the girl on the forehead.

"Why do you look sad, Mum? And how come you're home so early?"

"Because I missed you today, that's why. Would you like to go for a fly?"

Rose beamed and hopped out of Ginny's arms. She grabbed one of the brooms she had been toying with and dragged it over to Ginny. The redhead mounted it and then picked up her daughter. They took off flying circles around the Burrow. The young girl squealed with delight and Ginny smiled. They landed when Molly called them in for lunch and headed into the Burrow.

While at the kitchen table having ham sandwiches Ginny was buried deep in her thoughts until she was interrupted by the small brunette.

"Mum…can I ask a question?" Rose said curiously.

"Sure baby girl, you know you can ask me anything," Ginny said with a smile and brushed Rose's bushy brown hair out of her eyes.

"Well…you have a mum and dad…and all the other kids have mums and dads…how come I don't?"

"_Of all days she chose to ask me…it just had to be today,"_ Ginny thought. She sighed and put down her sandwich.

"Are you done with your lunch?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then, I think we need to take a walk."

* * *

**I am going to try to say this in the least offensive way possible since I know there are probably "Twilight" fans reading this**: Yes, vampires have a lot to do with this story. No, they are not the "Twilight" version of them. I've never read the books or seen the movies (although my friends keep pushing it on me) so if you're expecting Edward Cullen to pop up somewhere I am sorry but you're going to be incredibly disappointed. I prefer my vampires cold, pasty, afraid of the sunlight, and blood-thirsty.

Have a nice day =)


	2. Chapter 2

**-Chapter 2: Red Door-**

After cleaning herself up the vampire walked through the small, dark, dank house. She opened the white refrigerator in the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of milk. She needed a new block of ice. Later. Right now it was time for dinner before bed. For her anyways. For everyone else it would be breakfast. Not even breakfast, actually. It was still dark out. The beginnings of the morning sun wouldn't be peeking through the trees for another hour, at least. She wouldn't see it. She would be trapped in the small house until the sun went down. The windows were blacked out, all the cracks had been sealed. The wind-up clock on the mantle was her only clue as to whether or not she would be able to venture outside.

She opened the smaller compartment within the refrigerator. That door was red. She pulled out a jar. The jar was filled to the top with the sweet, succulent, crimson liquid. It was fresh, only hours old. She pulled a glass out of the kitchen cabinet. She filled it a quarter of the way with milk, the rest of the way with the liquid from jar. She did enjoy the taste of the blood by itself but months of running out before she would allow herself to kill again had taught her to ration it. She knew she would get her reward with the next victim, though.

The first bite on a fresh body was always so warm, so tasty. It was the closest she could get to the pleasure she had once felt before she, herself, was bitten. The pleasure of a warm body up next to hers. Hands exploring. Voices echoing through the room. Touching of forbidden places. Calling out her lover's name as she toppled over the edge into pure ecstasy. Trembling in her arms after it was over with.

She cried after their first time. She cried because she was in love. She cried because the war had ended. She cried because they had been apart for so long and now, in their first reunion since it all began, they had given themselves to one another for the first time. They were each other's firsts and exactly two years to the day after it they vowed, in front of their friends and family, that they would be each other's lasts. Two years after that her entire world came crashing down.

She moved to wipe the tears that she felt in her eyes. They weren't there. They hadn't been there in years. Seven years, and seven days to be exact. How she managed to still feel anything was a mystery. Vampires weren't supposed to feel. Just hunt. Hunt as often as they could. Smell out a victim, find them, and drink the fresh crimson from them. She couldn't do it.

She had tried to resist it at first but the need for the blood consumed her every thought. She lasted seven days. Most of those days she wasn't conscious. When she did give in it was the second of June. She had planned it all out. She would never take an innocent person as she had been taken. She would only take them once a month and save every drop. She would research each victim carefully, going through the stacks of old newspapers she found in the abandoned house to find a convicted criminal. When she found her target she would Apparate to the prison. She would take the first bite. She drained the blood from them, cleaned up every single trace that would give her away, then left. She _never_ left a trace.

This, as well as the fact that she had killed one of her own, was why she was rejected from them. There was not a single colony that would accept her after she had killed one of her own and attempted to resist it all. Even if they had forgiven her they still wouldn't accept her. She didn't think like a true hunter. She was sympathetic and careful. She couldn't go back to her old life, she knew it. She knew she would be an outcast, very few would remember her for what she truly was. The laws would not protect her because of all the attacks that were happening at the time. She would be killed.

Why had she killed one of her own? It was the one that bit her. She used the last bit of her strength on gripping her wand and muttering the words. The two words that ensured her an eternity of loneliness instead of death. _Avada Kedavra._ She didn't drink from him. She was in too much pain. When she realized she couldn't return to her life she wrote a letter. An anonymous letter. She wrote it to her one true love and enclosed the simple gold band that rested on her left ring finger.

_"I'm sorry. She told me to tell you how much she loved you. No more innocent ones will die at my hand. You have my word."_

Hermione Granger had the idea in her head that it would be better for Ginny Weasley to think she was dead than to know what she had become.


	3. Chapter 3

**-Chapter 3: The Pond-**

Ginny walked hand in hand with her daughter down to the pond where they always went for their talks. She spread out a blanket on the grass and they both sat down, Rose sat on Ginny's lap and Ginny held on to the photo album she had brought with them.

"You remember the talk we had when you asked babies come from?" Ginny asked. Rose was bright. So bright. Ginny swore sometimes that the young girl was already smarter than she was.

"Yeah."

"Sometimes it's not always a boy and a girl that fall in love. Sometimes it's two girls or two boys. It's not a choice, it just happens that way. You understand?"

"Yeah."

"Well I fell in love with a girl. We met at Hogwarts, she was very best friends with your Uncle Ron and Uncle Harry. Her name was Hermione Jean Granger."

"That's the same as my middle name!"

"It is, I made sure of it."

Ginny opened the photo album. On the first page was a picture of the original Dumbledore's Army, she flipped to the second page and there was a picture of Ginny and Hermione the summer just after their fifth and sixth years. They were outside the Burrow, Hermione's arm was wrapped around Ginny's back.

"She's pretty!" Rose squealed.

"She was…so beautiful," Ginny said as she traced her fingers over the moving picture. Hermione was laughing now. "You look so much like her, Rosie, it's unbelievable."

"So…if it takes a mum and a dad to make a baby…"

"Well sometimes Healers at the hospital help, too. We talked about the mums and dads each having a tiny piece that made a baby. The Healers can put them together and then put it inside the mum. They took the piece from Hermione and put it with the piece of a dad then put it in me. I'll explain it more when you're older but right now that's all you really need to know."

"Oh. Well…where is she?"

Ginny sighed and swallowed the lump in her throat.

"She died, baby. Before you were born."

Ginny turned the page twice in the photo album. This picture was black and white. She was sitting. Hermione was positioned above her left shoulder. They were both wearing white t-shirts but Ginny's was pulled up to reveal her swollen stomach. Hermione was gazing down at it and smiling. Her left hand was laid against the bump, Ginny's right was covering it and she was looking up at Hermione. Ginny had thought the idea of getting these pictures done was absurd at the time. She didn't want some Muggle photographer snapping pictures of her bare stomach. Now she realized they were the only pictures she would ever have of the three of them.

"Is that why you get sad sometimes, Mum?"

"Yeah, it is. She would have loved you so much though. She'd be so proud that you're so smart."

"What was she like?"

Ginny smiled. "She was very smart. She was the smartest witch in Hogwarts, some even said she was the brightest of our age. She was brave, she went with Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron when they had to fight the bad people that you sometimes hear them talk about. She was stubborn. She would never admit she was wrong."

"Am I like her?"

"In almost every single way except that you're a great flier. She didn't like it much but she loved watching me and I know she would have loved watching you."

Ginny flipped the page back in the photo album and there was a picture of her in her Gryffindor Quidditch uniform with Hermione giving her a peck on the cheek.

"How come you don't talk about her?"

"I suppose I should have talked to you about it before this. You know you can always ask me questions about anything though, I will always try to answer them the best I can."

"Did you have a wedding?"

"We did, it was here at the Burrow. It was spectacular. Uncle George lit off fireworks like he does sometimes at holidays, Uncle Harry and Aunt Luna stood up with us, they weren't married yet though. Everyone had lots of fun, even your Uncle Percy. I've got another album with just pictures of it. I'll try to find it so you can see."

"Do you miss her?"

"Every single day."


	4. Chapter 4

**-Chapter 4: One Photograph-**

Hermione walked around the small house before heading to sleep. She marked the day off on her calendar and wound up her clock. She walked to her bedroom. Other than the fact that she would be completely rejected from the vampires it was her bed that made her glad she wasn't part of a colony. Sleeping in caves and holes in the ground was not something she wanted to experience. Even though the house was held together by nothing but her repairing and sticking charms, she was sure, it was still better than nothing. She'd done her best to clean it up, she had no other option. It had been abandoned when she found it, there were Muggle newspapers stacked everywhere which she was later thankful for to help her find her targets. The newest stack indicated the house hadn't been abandoned that long when she found it. The blood on the floor told her whoever lived there probably got hauled off by a colony. It took hundreds of cleaning charms on every single surface and piece of furniture that was left but everything looked somewhat decent. She had multitudes of protective spells put around it, many of the same she had used during the horcrux hunt with Harry and Ron which now seemed like decades ago.

She looked at the one picture she had. It was a shot of a young girl about five years old with curly brown locks being held by an older redheaded woman in Diagon Alley.

It almost cost Hermione her life to get that picture. It was the first and only time she dared to venture to Diagon Alley since it all started. It was a complete accident that she saw them, actually.

……………

"_Damn," she muttered. "Thanks anyway."_

_She stepped out of the tiny shop in the tiny village and into the darkness of night. The apothecary was out of armadillo bile. She desperately needed it. She absolutely had to finish the Wit-Sharpening Potion. There was only one other familiar option…it was an emergency. She turned on the spot and landed in the middle of Diagon Alley. She pulled her hood up covering her face even further. Anyone who looked would only see a black hole. She made her way through the crowd to the apothecary. Then she saw her. She saw the red-haired beauty step out of the shop next door. _

"_Oh my God…" she gasped. She looked at the redhead…then to the young girl in her arms. Ginny started walking down the alley. Hermione followed far behind, never letting them out of sight. She silently thanked all of the shopkeepers for having their lights on; it made the stalking much easier than if it had been dark._

_Ginny kept moving. She reached the door of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and stepped inside. Hermione looked around. She saw a shop with cameras lining the windows. It was slightly creepy. She…she needed it though. She hurried inside the shop and grabbed one of the smaller cameras. She took it to the counter._

"_I need to know how to develop the film," she said to the girl behind the counter._

"_Here, this will tell you everything." The girl pulled a box from a shelf and set it on the counter. Hermione dropped the required amount of gold on the countertop and hurried out of the shop. She was just in time. Ginny headed towards the ice cream shop, the young girl she was holding was smiling from ear-to-ear, obviously she knew where they were going. She snapped the picture. It was perfect._

_Someone knocked into her. Her hood fell down and she fumbled to put it back up. Too late. There were screams and shouts of "Vampire!" She took one last look at Ginny and the young girl before turning on the spot._

_She went through the box when she got home. It contained potions, paper, instructions, everything she needed. She brewed carefully, never before had she been more careful. It turned out perfect. The photograph turned out perfect. She found a frame that had been left behind by the previous owners and cleaned it. She slipped the picture inside it and put it on the mantelpiece of the fireplace._

……………

Nearly every day she wondered why she stayed alive. She asked herself why she didn't just finish herself off and end the pain. Then she would look at the picture.

"Maybe someday…" she always said to herself. "Someday I'll find her and tell her…she's got to understand…she'll have to."


	5. Chapter 5

**-Chapter 5: The Trace-**

Four more months, four more bodies. In the beginning hours of the second of November, Ginny lay awake in her room at the Burrow staring at the ceiling wondering what the person she would find that morning had been convicted of. What would the letter say? She got out of bed and went across the landing. She poked her head into her daughter's room. The young girl was sleeping peacefully.

Hermione packed her bag and Apparated to the prison of the victim she had selected. A quick Disillusionment charm and she started wandering the corridors. She peered into each cell and finally found the one she wanted. She Apparated into it and started her work.

Ginny burst into Harry's office the next afternoon.

"Trace…" she gasped, "there was a trace! Saliva…left…"

"Seriously?" Harry stood.

"I managed to swipe a bit of it from the Muggle lab, I've set it down already to our guys to see if they can match it with any still living registered vampires."

……………

It was December first. Harry sat staring at the parchment that was on his desk. His heart was racing. He had actually vomited when he read the letter the first time. There was a knock on his door. The knock he dreaded. He had to do it though, there was no other choice. He briefly wondered if he should've called Mediwizards to have them stand by. He probably should have but she'd never forgive him if she had to go back.

"Come in, Ginny," he called out. Ginny stepped into Harry's office. The man cast an Imperturbable charm on his office door. "Sit down, Gin."

Ginny did as she was told. Harry sealed the Floo connection that was in his office so they couldn't be interrupted. Harry picked up the piece of parchment that had made him sick only hours before and then sat next to Ginny in one of the other armchairs. He took off his glasses and rubbed his forehead. He couldn't look at the redhead.

"Harry, what's wrong?"

"I'm putting Ron back on this case and you're going to be on paid leave until I say otherwise."

"What? Harry! No…no I need to work…Tomorrow is…"

"I know what tomorrow is. Something has come up though and I think it would be best if you weren't on this case anymore and that you take some time off."

"How could something possibly come up, Harry? I was told two weeks ago that sample didn't match any of the registered vampires. The only thing the Muggle lab found was that it's a woman."

"I sent the sample to St. Mungo's and had them run it against the DNA of literally every single test they've done in the passed ten years."

"And?"

"Why was Rose in the hospital?"

"Wh-what? How…how did you…"

"I need to know, Ginny."

"Sh-she had mumblemumps…"

"They…they found a partial match." Harry's stomach lurched.

"What?" Ginny hated the direction this was going. "I…I don't understand…"

"Every person gets DNA from each of their parents…"

"I know how it works, Harry! I…don't…stop…just stop talking, please…" Ginny begged. She started shaking.

"The vampire had...has a biological child…" Harry rubbed his forehead again and held back his own tears.

"H-Harry…n-no…please don't…p-please…"

Harry looked at Ginny. She was pale, tears were streaming down her face.

"Rose is the child with the partial match, Ginny."

"N-no. H-Harry…NO!"

Harry handed Ginny the piece of parchment. The St. Mungo's seal was at the top. Her eyes traveled over the words that she didn't even know she didn't want to read.

_"Mr. Potter,_

_In going through our records we have found a partial match of the DNA sample you provided us with. The match is from a patient file, #24387, dated 16 April, 2005. The patient name is Rosalind Jean Weasley-Granger. If you need any further information please contact us."_

Ginny woke in her room at the Burrow. She walked down the rickety staircase. Her parents, daughter, Harry, Luna, and Ron were in the sitting room listening to the Wireless. Harry was the first to notice her presence. He stood and walked over to her. The moment he put his arm around her shoulder she collapsed into him, sobbing. She hit him in the chest and swore. He pulled her back towards the staircase and up to her room closely followed by Ron.

"Harry…what…what do I do? Why…why would she leave…let me think…she was dead?"

"I don't know what you should do, Gin. I mean…she knew about the few attacks that happened before the one in Diagon Alley. She read the laws that the Ministry started passing when they happened and before she was…She knew…Gin she knew that if she tried to come back that she would be killed, no questions asked."

"I would have protected her! She knows I would have! Oh gods…" Ginny held onto her stomach and Ron summoned a bucket just in time. Harry conjured a glass of water and Ginny drank it down then fell back onto her bed. "Why wasn't her name in the register?"

"She's not daft, she would've known what the Ministry was up to with it," Ron said. "Remember the Muggle-born register? She would have known that this wasn't much different."

There had been a "compromise" a year after the first attacks started. The Ministry let out the word that any vampire that registered with them and agreed to their rules would be kept safe. They wouldn't be killed or shipped to the desert like the rest of them. The Ministry promised food sources, safe houses and even jobs to those who registered. Nearly every single one that signed the register was dead now.

"How do we find her?"

"You know we don't know," Harry sighed. "The letters are always untraceable, you know we've tried absolutely everything possible."

"Ginny…even if…even if we were to find her…she won't be the same."

"She might be, Ron."

"Ginny she's a…she's…a v-vampire," Harry stammered. His stomach lurched. "People change after the bite."

"She obviously hasn't changed much if she is still organized, resourceful, and sympathetic. Have you ever gotten a letter from another one after they've killed, apologizing for it?"

"Well no, but…"

"What do we tell her parents?"

"I'm going over there tomorrow," Ron said.

"Luna and I will take Rose for a few…"

"No, Harry. Right now the one thing I need is my daughter. I need her."

"Ginny you know she'll be safe. While she's with us I think you should talk to the Healers about staying…"

"Harry you're not going to take away the one thing that has kept me alive for seven years. I can handle this. And I'm not going back there."


	6. Chapter 6

**-Chapter 6: Snowy Memories-**

It was December fourteenth. She didn't know she'd left a trace or that Ginny now knew she was alive. She didn't know that Harry and Ron were spending their every waking moment going through every note she'd sent, every victim she'd taken, everything about the case starting from day one. All she knew was that she was angry with herself because one of the jars had slipped and gone crashing to the floor. Sure, she could repair the jar and filter the blood but it was the fact that she lost concentration for a split second that infuriated her. She let her mind wander while she was supposed to be focusing on something else. She had looked outside earlier. It was snowing. It was lying in the snow, Christmas Day, just outside of the Burrow the winter after their final year at Hogwarts that Ginny had proposed.

……………

_Ginny tackled Hermione to the ground and took a handful of snow and tossed it at her. They rolled around, laughing and squealing until they were out of breath. They lay on their backs in the cold, Ginny's left hand in Hermione's right._

"'_Mione?"_

"_Yeah baby?"_

"_Do you love me?"_

"_Of course I do."_

"_Even though I only gave you a book for Christmas?" Ginny propped herself up on her elbow and pushed away the stray strands of hair from Hermione's face. Hermione rolled over and smiled at the redhead._

"_Gin you know it doesn't matter to me. I just love being with you."_

"_Oh. So I guess I don't need to give you your other gift."_

"_Well…I…if you wanted…I wouldn't object…"_

_Ginny reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a small box. Hermione sat bolt upright and stared at it, mouth open. Ginny sat up and smiled. She opened the box. _

"_Oh my God …Ginny…those are…th-they're…rings…you...rings." Hermione looked at the box, then to Ginny, back to the box. "YES! Yes! Oh my God yes!" she shrieked._

"_I haven't even asked you!"_

"_I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Okay…okay…go…go on!"_

_Ginny smiled and pulled the glove off of Hermione's left hand. The brunette shook with anticipation and tears streamed out of her eyes as Ginny pulled one of the shiny silver bands with a small diamond mounted on it out of the box._

"_Hermione Jean Granger…Will you marry me?"_

……………

She had cried. God she cried a lot when she was with Ginny. It wasn't usually because she was sad. It was almost always because she was happy. She cried after their first kiss, when she had to leave with Harry and Ron, after their first time, after the proposal, at the wedding, when they found out Ginny was pregnant, just to name a few. She remembered wishing she couldn't cry then. The tears made her feel vulnerable. Now she would give almost anything to be able to have them again.

……………

After she cleaned up the bloody mess she started going through the newspapers again. She found a copy of _The Times_ with a bold headline about the conviction of a serial rapist. She read through the article and studied the picture. He was perfect. She'd found her January supply.

...............

"Harry," Ron said as he put down a file in the stack of ones they'd gone through and looked over the parchment he'd been taking notes on. "What if she's not doing this at random?"

"What do you mean, Ron?"

"The dates the people are convicted are in chronological order. Her first kill was convicted in November of 1994, the second in February of 1995, the third and fourth in April of the same year, then three in May, then July…it's a perfect order." Ron pointed to a list of dates he'd written out.

"There's no way in hell this is a coincidence…but how would she know?"

"Do Muggle newspapers put in stuff like this?"

"Yeah."

"What if that's what she is using?"

"How would she get Muggle newspapers from that far back? She can't just walk into a library."

"Hell if I know mate but right now it's the best we've got."

"Okay…what was the date of the last conviction?"

"October 1999. So we need to start finding records of major convictions after that."

……………

Ginny was outside chasing Rose in the snow. She took her for a broom ride up around to the top of the Burrow so the young girl could see out at the blanket of white that was covering the fields.

"Are you going to write a letter to Santa this year, Rosie?"

"I already did. Gran helped me."

"Did you ask him for anything special?"

"Yeah but I can't tell you 'cause I want it to be a surprise."

"Oh, okay." Ginny smiled and wrapped her arms tight around the young girl in front of her.

"Are you gonna write him a letter, Mum?"

"Well Santa doesn't leave presents for adults, only for kids…" Ginny stopped when Rose turned around and looked at her wide-eyed, almost as if she might cry. "But I suppose it can't hurt to try, now can it?" Ginny smiled and Rose did, too. "You're going to have to help me though, it's been a long time since I wrote to him. Think you can do that?"

"Yeah! Can we go do it now? And maybe some hot chocolate?"

"Of course sweetie. I'm sure your Gran already has some hot chocolate ready for us."

Ginny flew back down to the ground and they headed into the kitchen. Molly had hot chocolate waiting for them and Rose bounced up the stairs to get parchment and a quill.

"Rosie said you helped her write her letter to Santa," Ginny said as she sipped her hot chocolate.

"I did. I told her you would love to help her but she insisted that I do it."

"You think I don't spend enough time with her, Mum? Maybe…maybe I need to just tell Harry I'm not coming back until she goes to Hogwarts. I mean…you and Dad…and even Harry and Luna, all of you practically raised her for a while…I'm her mother, I should be spending as much time with her as I can. You know I can afford it. She needs me more than Harry does…"

"Dear that's not why she didn't want your help. I've left the letter in the hidden compartment in your desk, I think you should take a look at it."

Rose came bouncing down the stairs with parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink. She hopped up in the chair next to Ginny and laid it all out in front of her.

"Okay, you gotta start it 'Dear Santa'," Rose said when Ginny picked up the quill. She waited for Ginny to start writing. "Okay now you ask him how he is 'cause that's polite and he likes that. Then you tell him that you tried to be good this year. Then just tell him what you want!" Rose sipped her hot chocolate and watched excitedly as Ginny kept writing.

"_If only it were that easy…"_ Ginny thought as she glanced over at her smiling daughter.

"What are you gonna ask him for, Mum?"

"Well I asked for some Chocolate Frogs because those are my favorite and I can never have enough of them," Ginny said. Rose beamed. The redhead already knew her daughter had spent most of her pocket money on a box of them for Ginny's Christmas present. "And I said I needed a new jumper and maybe some broom handle polish."

"Okay now you just put your name at the bottom and put it in an envelope! Gran are you still gonna send mine when you go to Diagon Alley tomorrow?"

"Of course dear."

"Can you send Mum's, too?"

"I most certainly can." Molly smiled and patted Rose on the head. Arthur Flooed in and Rose ran to greet him.

After dinner and getting Rose settled into bed for the night Ginny went across the landing into her room and opened the hidden compartment that was on the underside of her desk. Underneath the box that contained Hermione's wedding ring and their engagement rings was an envelope with messy handwriting addressed to Santa Claus. She pulled out the envelope then looked at the one that was underneath it.

The front was blank but she knew what it held. It was everything Hermione had never told her about during their blissful two years of marriage. Everything that ensured they would never have to worry about how to take care of themselves. Hermione's mother gave it to Ginny and she opened it three weeks after the letter with the ring came. It was account information for Gringotts and several Muggle investments and how to go about retrieving them. Hermione had always been good with their money. What little of it they had started with was now more than Ginny could quite possibly spend even if she were to stop working until Rose went to Hogwarts.

Ginny shut the compartment door and sat down on her bed with the envelope with messy handwriting. She carefully opened it and began deciphering the seven-year-old's writing. By the time she was done with it she was completely inconsolable.

_"_…_I don't want much this Christmas, Santa. But I do want my Mum to not be sad like she is sometimes. I love her a lot and I want her to be happy…"_

Ginny tucked the letter back into the compartment and after rinsing her face with cold water she made her way downstairs to the sitting room. She sat next to her mother on the couch.

"Mum…how is it that a seven-year-old knows how to read me just as well as Hermione did when the two never met?"

"Just because they don't know each other doesn't mean Rose didn't inherit things from her, dear. You may have carried her but she is technically Hermione's, don't forget. There is no doubt in my mind that Rose is just as smart as and even more perceptive."

"I've tried really hard to make her believe I'm happy though…how does she know?"

"She just does, dear."

"So what do I do, Mum?"

"You're her mother, Ginny. It's up to you."


	7. Chapter 7

**-Chapter 7: An Emergency-**

It was three days before Christmas and Ron almost broke the door down to Harry's office when he pounded on it.

"Open the damn door, Harry! I've got something!"

With a flick of his wand Harry's door flew open and Ron bolted in. He slammed down a copy of _The Times_ on Harry's desk.

"The biggest conviction after the October one. A serial rapist. It was headline news. I've even checked back a year in this paper and every single one of her kills had an article in here about their conviction and a picture of the sleazebag. This is it, Harry. This has to be."

"Dammit, Ron! Will you shut your mouth?!" Harry hissed and jumped out of his chair. He looked around outside of his office to check that the halls were bare. He shut his door. "Are you _trying_ to let someone else know about this? Do you really want to get her killed? Did anyone see you come in here?"

"Sorry mate…I just got a little excited, is all. I don't think anyone saw me. The only people still here are your annoying assistant and Malfoy but he was getting ready to leave, I think."

"We have to be careful about this, Ron." Harry sat back down at his desk and started going through the article. He scribbled notes down on some spare parchment. Name of the criminal. Location of the prison. He sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"You get those headaches checked out yet?"

"It's just stress, Ron. I saw a Healer last week, got some potion." Harry pulled a bottle out of his desk and took a drink.

"So what do we do?"

"We do like the Aurors planned years ago for if we ever got to this point. Go to the prison, confund the guards, stand watch, and hope for a capture. Except now…well now we can't really tell the Aurors what we're doing."

"What do we do with her after? Where do we go? You know whether or not she's still somewhat like herself she'll get violent if she doesn't…"

"Hush," Harry hissed as he peered at his door, curiously. "Fuck…" he grumbled as he slowly made his way to the door. He whipped it open and drew his wand quickly. There was no one there. He looked down each hallway, it was completely deserted. He was still nervous though. He'd forgotten to cast the Imperturbable charm on his door. Anyone could've heard.

"Something wrong, Harry?"

"Thought I heard something."

"I didn't hear anything."

"You were too busy potentially screwing everything up!"

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry mate, really. No one's out there though."

"Yeah…" Harry said as he stepped back inside his office. He shut the door and this time made sure to cast the charm.

"Do we tell Ginny?"

"No. Most definitely not. She'll want to come with us and there is no way I am letting her do that."

"And if we catch her?"

"I don't know."

"Grimmauld would be the safest place, I think."

"That might…"

There was a knock at the door. "Mr. Potter! It's an emergency, sir!" It was Harry's young and eager assistant, Tim. Harry stood and opened his door, the young man stepped inside.

"What is it, Tim?"

"This, sir." Tim handed Harry a piece of parchment. Harry read through it and dismissed him.

"There's been a vampire attack…" Harry choked. "Ron, it was Ottery St. Catchpole."


	8. Chapter 8

**-Chapter 8: The Reunion-**

Ron immediately stepped into Harry's Floo and went to the Burrow. He was met by Molly.

"Ronald! Oh thank goodness! You haven't been out there trying to find out what's going on, have you?"

"I should be, Mum. I just wanted to make sure everyone here is all right."

"We're all fine. One of the villagers came by to tell us what happened. H-how many, Ron?"

"I don't know yet. I'm going to Apparate over. Do not leave the house, Mum. Where's Ginny and Rose?"

"Upstairs washing for dinner."

"Make sure all of you stay close by each other until either I come back or I send someone."

Ron Apparated to just outside the village. There were Ministry officials and vehicles everywhere. He showed his badge to one of the guards and went into the village.

"How many so far?" Ron asked Harry when the two found each other. Ron took the clipboard Harry was carrying around and looked it over.

"So far? Twenty-five dead, fourteen wounded. Not enough time has passed to find out how many were infected. A few of them were able to subdue a couple of the attackers and they're being held."

"It's been months since the last large scale attack. Why now?"

"Restless, I guess. I don't know. I just don't know, Ron. Come on, we've still got a couple more places to check."

……………

There were two days until Christmas Hermione traveled into the small village to replenish her potions ingredients. She was able to snatch a discarded copy of _The Daily Prophet_. She looked at the front page. She didn't even bother going to the apothecary. She turned on the spot and landed back in her kitchen. She scoured through the paper, looking for names of victims. There was nothing. She paced the floor.

Harry and Ron would have the Burrow surrounded, she was sure of it. It would be risky. It was either die trying or go mad wondering. She grabbed her wand and straightened up her cloak.

She landed next to a pond. A pond she had swam in so many times before with her love in the summertime. It was frozen over now. Perfect metaphor. Her Disillusionment charms were perfect; almost as good as an Invisibility Cloak. She made her way through the forest until she saw the house from the edge of the trees. The windows were lit with a warm, inviting glow that cut through the darkness. A few deep breaths told her there were two humans on the opposite side of the house.

She crept through the snow covered yard up to one of the windows. She listened. Molly's voice. Arthur's voice. A giggle from a young girl. A rustle from the forest. She turned her attention back to the forest and took a deep breath. It wasn't human. And there was more than one.

Hermione drew her wand. A pale figure emerged from the forest. Then another. Soon there were three and then four. There was a sharp scream from the other side of the house and a commotion inside. Harry and Ron burst out the door.

"GET OUT!" Harry yelled back inside. "EVERYONE, GRIMMAULD, NOW!"

There was a series of cracks and a flash of green from inside the house just as the now dozen figures rapidly approached the Burrow. Harry and Ron began moving forward and casting spells. Hermione abandoned her Disillusionment charm and joined them standing to Ron's left. She shot killing curses while the other two simply tried to stun.

After the fourth streak of green shot from her wand and hit its target the remaining figures disappeared save for one that lunged towards Ron. Hermione ran for him. She knocked Ron to the ground and bore her teeth at the pale man.

"Stay away," she hissed.

"You…killed your own…traitor!"

"I will _never_ be one of you! Tell them to stop and stay away or there be more casualties."

The man growled and disappeared with a crack. Hermione turned to see Harry and Ron standing, staring.

"Her-Hermione…" Harry stammered.

She nodded.

"Come with us, 'Mione, we can keep you safe…"

"I can't…I'm sorry…"

She landed in her house. She was shaking. She went to the refrigerator and opened the small red door inside it. She fumbled with the lid on one of the jars. She took a drink. She wondered if she should have gone with them. She knew the laws though. She knew they would be in danger if they helped her. Why hadn't they been more shocked to see her, though? She would certainly be shocked to see someone had they been known to be dead. Could they have known? There's no possible way. She _never_ left a trace.

……………

"You're sure it was her, Harry?"

"I'm sure, Gin."

"And…she really is…"

"Yeah."

Ginny and Harry were in the sitting room of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Rose was asleep on Ginny's lap. The redhead wouldn't let the young girl out of her sight. Everyone else had gone to bed for the night.

"You have to find her and keep her safe, do you understand me, Harry? If we have to pay people to help you I'll do it. I have more than enough, you know this. Promise me. Promise me you will find her."

"I'll do my best, Ginny. If…if she survives to her January kill…I think we can find her."

"You found something?"

"I wasn't going to tell you but yeah, we did. We think we know where she's going next."

"I'll come…"

"No, you will not. Period. Do not argue with me on this Ginny, please. Ron and I have enough to deal with already and if something were to happen to you we can't have that hanging over us, okay?"

Ginny nodded shakily.


	9. Chapter 9

**-Chapter 9: The Reunion, Part II-**

It was the second of January. Just passed midnight. Harry and Ron waited at the prison. They had confunded the guard to tell them where the prisoner was and they waited.

She'd risked her life even more every single day since the attack at the Burrow. She'd gone into the village every night to find a copy of _The Prophet_. There had been no more attacks. She couldn't worry about that now. She had to focus on the task at hand. She absolutely had to. She took a deep breath and there was a loud crack. She scoured the corridors. She took another deep breath. Sweat. Lots of humans. Wait. There was a distinct smell in this prison, she'd been here before, several times. Now there was something different. She drew her wand.

"Come out," she hissed.

A thick rope shot out at her, she blocked it and retaliated with a stunner. A body hit the ground. There was a loud scuffle then a voice.

"Wow, Mudblood. You stupefied Potter, nicely done!"

"Draco?"

"Very good, Granger. Now, drop your wand unless you have every intention of stupefying Weasley as well. If that's the case I'll let him go and you can have at him. I've always wanted to see you turn against them."

"Why are you here, Ferret-Boy?"

"You've got quite a reward on your head, you know? When I found out that Potter and Weasley knew who you were and where you were going I thought I'd tag along."

Hermione glanced away from Draco to Harry who was stirring. A big mistake. He dropped Ron and quickly pinned her against the wall. One hand around her throat, the other gripping his wand. No. It wasn't a wand. It was a stake. And the sharp tip of it was pushing at her chest.

"Weasley, Potter," he called out. "If you hit me with anything right now, I fall forward and this stake goes through her heart. Got it?"

There was a droplet of blood oozing from Draco's split lip. Hermione took a deep breath. Oh God it smelled good. She tried to move her head forward. He pushed her back.

"God you smell so good…" she groaned, looking right into his eyes with lust. She knew how to manipulate the weak. It wasn't that difficult. Once or twice a year a prisoner had managed to fix themselves a wooden stake because they'd heard rumors of what was happening and she'd found herself in this same situation. Unable to turn on the spot. Unable to move. It was always the ones that were the most afraid of death that were the easiest to distract.

"Draco…" she groaned again. She licked her lips.

Draco's eyes widened at Hermione's second lustful groan and her left hand gripping on his hip, pulling him in. He loosened his grip and she heard the clatter of wood on the ground. She lunged forward. Her fingernails scraped across his scalp. She looked into his eyes and smirked. She took his bottom lip in her mouth and flicked her tongue over it to get the small taste of blood she craved. Harry and Ron stood there watching the scene unfold, dumbfounded. She pulled him in closer.

"You want me, Draco?" she purred into his ear. Now she was just fucking with him. He deserved it. Years of being called 'Mudblood' and now…oh the irony at what was about to happen; his pure blood about to be tainted with something not even human.

He whimpered and pleaded for her to have mercy on him. She lowered her mouth onto his neck and placed a gentle kiss on his jugular. She smiled. Before he could move she sank her teeth deep into the flesh. He screamed. She fell to the ground with him, still sucking. Still drinking. She wasn't sure how long she drank but at one point something hit her and it all went black.

……………

Ginny slipped out of her room and went to the kitchen. She started a pan of milk simmering on the stove. She checked the clock. Ron was traveling. She checked her watch. It was one in the morning. She finished her milk and went back upstairs. Rose had crawled into her bed while she was in the kitchen. She smiled and put on something more decent then settled down into bed. She felt as though she had barely been asleep when the young girl shook her awake.

"Mum…Mum…wake up, Mum! Come on!"

"Mmmm yeah Rosie, what do you need?"

"Good morning!"

"Morning to you too baby girl."

"Can I have scrambled eggs for breakfast?"

"Okay." Ginny groaned and rolled out of bed. She checked her watch. Seven-thirty. Rose led her down the stairs and Ginny started breakfast. Molly came downstairs just as an owl pecked on the window. Ginny dashed to it and untied the scroll from its leg.

"Oh…oh gods. Mum…Mum I need to leave for a while."

"Is everything all right, dear?"

"They found her."

Ginny hurried upstairs and dressed. In five minutes she was downstairs. She kissed Rose on the forehead and told her to be a good girl. She Flooed to Grimmauld Place. Harry met her at the fireplace.

"I told you not to come."

"Then why are you waiting for me?"

"She's upstairs, top floor. Door on the left. Unconscious for now."

Ginny made her way up the stairs, slowly. She stood outside the door. She felt sick. She turned the handle and opened the door. The windows had been blacked out. It was pitch black save for a lamp on the bed side cabinet. Luna looked up at Ginny from one of the armchairs and gave a sympathetic smile. She took a deep breath and made her way to the bed.

"Oh sweetheart…" Ginny whispered as she sat down on the bed. Hermione's skin was pale and dull. Her hair was no longer bushy but limp and lifeless. Ginny knew her chocolate brown eyes would no longer be. They would simply be orbs of black. She ran her fingers through the limp and lifeless hair and placed a gentle kiss on Hermione's forehead.

"We're going to try to keep her sleeping as long as we can," Luna said. "I don't know how long we'll be able to. When they don't have blood for a while it causes…"

"Pain," Ginny said. "I know, Luna. How are you at Blood Replenishing Potion?"

"Rather good. I brewed it for St. Mungo's when I worked here."

"We're going to need it."

……………

Blood. She needed blood. She screamed for it. How many days had it been? It felt like ages. Years. Decades. She was in pain. So much pain. Something was ripping her apart from the inside out. She couldn't get out of the bed.

"Please! Please just fucking let me have some! Fuck! It hurts!"

"What do we do, Harry?" Ron asked.

"She's got to have some, Ron."

"Well where do we…"

"I don't know! Does it look like I keep a blood bank going?"

Ginny came into the bedroom.

"Out, both of you," she said. She hid something in her bathrobe.

"Gin…" Ron reached for what she was hiding.

"Get out!"

Harry and Ron obliged leaving Ginny with Hermione whose wrists were bound to the bed. Hermione took a deep breath. Oh my God. What…what was that smell? She'd never smelled anything so sweet and succulent in her entire life. She strained to free her wrists. No such luck. There was a hand on the back of her head, tilting it up. Then…then she tasted the most amazing thing she had ever tasted. She closed her eyes and drank. She drank until every last drop from the glass had passed her lips.

"Oh…gods…" she moaned. "So fucking good…"

"Promise you won't try to bite me if I untie you?"

The familiar smooth voice of Ginevra Molly Weasley echoed through her head. She smiled.

"Odd choice of words for the first time after seven years," Hermione said.

"Not really, considering your current state."

Hermione sighed. She felt warm fingertips drag up her forearms to the bindings. She let out a whimper. She felt warm lips follow the fingertips.

"Ginny…" she gasped.

After a few minutes of the fingers fumbling with the ties she was free. She sat up and rubbed her wrists. She looked at the glass on the bedside cabinet.

"Where did you…"

"Don't ask."

"Ginny…"

"You were in pain. I did what I had to do to stop it, that's all."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Still stubborn, I see."

"And you're not? Refusing to come with Harry and Ron when you had the chance?"

"Seems as though they got to me anyways. How long have I been unconscious?"

"Few days. I've been here on and off. When I got the Floo call from Harry telling me you had woken up I came right over." Ginny got up from the bed. She felt cold fingers wrap around her wrist and Hermione pulled up her sleeve. Hermione's fingers traced over the bandage on Ginny's forearm.

"You can't do this, Ginny."

"What else did you want me to do?"

"Let me go."

"Not a chance. Hermione, they kill every single vampire they find now. There are no prisoners anymore. Maybe the occasional interrogation but after that they're killed. They won't care that you weren't part of the attacks, they'll kill you."

"I was doing just fine before this!"

"Obviously not since you got caught."

"Why do I have a feeling you had something to do with it?"

"It was mostly Harry and Ron but yeah, I had something to do with it. You left a trace in November."

"A trace? What?"

"Saliva on the guy's neck."

"Fuck…So how the hell did you find me just from that?"

"I swiped a sample of it from the Muggle lab and…there was a partial match…" Ginny stopped.

"Partial match? What about a partial match?"

"My…your…_our_ daughter. Rosalind Jean. We call her Rose or Rosie…She had mumblemumps a few years ago and St. Mungo's ran some tests. Harry had them run your trace against all of their records and they found it."

"Rose…" Hermione whispered. She didn't care how they found her anymore. It didn't matter. They did. Now…Ginny had brought it up. She needed to know. "Is she…what…what's she like, Ginny?"

"Exactly like you. She's stubborn, brilliant, perceptive, her hair is un-tamable, her eyes can melt anyone that looks into them…One thing she did get from me is that she's a pretty good flier."

"You let her fly?"

"Only if I'm watching or with her."

"Does she know about me?"

"I told her in June…that was before…before we knew anything. We thought you were dead…I don't really know what to tell her now."

"Don't tell her anything. I've got to leave, Ginny."

"Hermione, you can't. You-will-be-found. The only people in the Ministry who aren't out vampire hunting right now are Harry, Ron, and me. Merlin's beard, 'Mione, do you know what would happen if someone like Draco Malfoy found you? He's an Auror, Hermione. He would have no problem killing you."

"H-Harry…Ron…they didn't tell you what happened at the prison?"

"I didn't really want to know."

"Draco was there. He…he found out they were going to be there. I-I bit him."

"Oh fuck." Ginny leaned against the desk and hung her head. "Did he…did he die?"

"I don't know. One of the two gits knocked me out while I was enjoying my snack. He didn't taste very good though. I'd probably be angrier had he tasted better."

"This isn't funny, Hermione. If Draco lived to tell about it…"

"If Draco lived to tell about it then according to you it won't be for very long."

"It will be long enough for him to tell them who has been killing prisoners and that Harry and Ron know about it."

There was a knock at the door followed by Harry and Ron stepping inside. With a wave of his hand Harry brought the lamps up on the walls to a dim glow. Hermione flinched and rubbed her head. She let her eyes adjust. Ron and Harry looked warily at Hermione who was still sitting on the bed and Ginny who had moved when they came in and was standing within arms reach of the vampire.

"I won't bite, promise."

Harry and Ron each sat in a chair. Ginny sat at the foot of the bed.

"Where the hell have you been, Hermione?" Harry spoke. He sounded angry.

"Hiding, obviously."

"Why didn't you come to us?"

"Oh, I don't know Harry, maybe because you work for the department that sees to it that vampires are killed. That might have had something to do with it."

"I have the same job I had before you left, Hermione. That's not what I do. Ron and I didn't inform anyone else of our plans. We broke I don't know how many regulations to ensure that we were the ones that got to you and not the Aurors."

"Where exactly do your allegiances lie?" Ron watched every twitch, every breath Hermione took. His wand was at the ready.

"They lie with myself. The colonies won't take me. Humans will kill me. I keep myself safe and that's it."

"What happened to Draco?" Ginny didn't care about who Hermione was loyal to. She didn't care why she'd been hiding or where.

"Dead." Harry rubbed his forehead. "We let her go at him long enough to kill him then stupefied her. The Ministry thinks him a fucking hero now because they think he figured it out all on his own and tried to stop it."

There was another knock on the door. A silver-eyed blonde stepped inside with a glass that was bubbling with pale pink liquid.

"Just finished, Ginny." She handed the glass to Ginny who drank it down.

"Thanks, Luna. Keep 'em coming. Six should do it."

"What the hell was that?" Harry asked when Luna left the room.

"What do you think it was, Harry?"

"I know what it was! Why are you drinking Blood-Replenishing Potion?"

Ginny rolled up her sleeve. Ron stood and aimed his wand at Hermione who sat still and just looked at him. His look of confidence disappeared when a slender piece of wood was pressed to his temple.

"Ronald. If you cast so much as a tickling charm at my wife I will make sure you're never able to use that arm again, do you understand me?"

Only one word of what Ginny said actually registered in Hermione's brain. She wondered if Ginny had even read the laws. Legally speaking their marriage was null and void the day Hermione had been bitten. It didn't exist. It never happened.

Ron was sitting now. Hermione didn't know what happened to make him sit but he was. Ginny was, too. Ginny was sitting closer to her than before and there was a warmth on her hand. She looked down to see slender fingers intertwined with her own. Ginny's skin was still pale and freckled as it always had been. It wasn't the same pale as her own though. It was glowing and warm not pasty and cold.

"What are you going to tell Rose?" Harry looked at Ginny.

"She isn't," Hermione said.

"We'll think of something."

"No, you won't. I don't want her to know about any of this. It doesn't matter because I'm leaving."

"Good luck with that," Harry said. "You remember how all the time at Hogwarts you went on and on about how no one could Apparate or Disapparate within the grounds? Well now it's my turn. You can't Apparate or Disapparate within the walls of this house. You also can't leave the house without my knowledge and consent. I picked up a few charms from some guards who work at Azkaban plus I have the few ghosts that are left keeping an eye out. Face it, you're stuck here until we figure out what to do."

"And when I get hungry? Are you all going to take turns slicing open your forearms for me?"

"If we must." Ginny's fingers that weren't holding onto Hermione's ran a line up and down the vampire's pale arm. She didn't even realize she was doing it. Seven years and some habits never leave.


	10. Chapter 10

**-Chapter 10: Her Heart-**

Harry and Ron sat silently in the sitting room sipping hot coffee.

"How do you suppose she does it, Harry? Survives on what little she does? All the others…they want at least three or four times what she does."

"She can't hurt things that don't deserve it, Ron. She's never been able to."

"The bite should have changed her though, mate. We've seen more innocent people than Hermione turn into cold blooded killers. Why didn't she?"

"She didn't want to. She's too damn stubborn to give in to it. She…her heart, Ron. Love. She had too much to live for. It's exactly the kind of thing Dumbledore always talked about. There could be more like her that we don't know about or that were killed before they had the chance to turn…It kind of makes me sick to think about it."

"How do we deal with this though? If someone finds out, Harry…all of us…we'll all be thrown in Azkaban after they kill her."

"Ron you we've put up every single protective spell that all of us know against this place. It worked for the Order, it'll work for this."

……………

It was February seventh. She'd been there over a month. She started recognizing whose blood was whose. Luna's was light and almost citrus-like. Harry's was bold and thick. Ron's was…interesting, to say the least; she couldn't figure out how to describe it. Ginny's…oh God. It represented everything that was still good in the world. It was a cold swim on a hot day. It was a cup of hot chocolate when it was freezing outside. It was lovers' first kisses. It was delicious and sweet and savory. It was perfect.

"Harry if you're going to insist that I stay here then I am going to insist that I get to go to my house and get my things."

"Why won't you see Ginny?"

"Because I don't need her taking this home with her to her daughter."

"She's your daughter, too."

"No she isn't, Harry. Biologically, yes. But I wasn't there holding Ginny when Rose was born. I wasn't there when she spoke her first words or took her first steps or rode her first broom. I'm not her mother."

"Tell that to your wife."

"Harry did you read the laws at all? The day I got bitten…"

"I've read the laws. It doesn't matter to her, Hermione. Don't you see that? You could be a damn vampire-werewolf-mermaid and she wouldn't care. She loves you."

Ow. There was a twinge of pain in her head. No way she could be hungry. Just as it was there it was gone.

"Can we please go get my things? You can come with, I'll Apparate us both there, get my things and you can Apparate us back if you don't trust me."

They landed outside of the small shack. She took a deep breath. Harry. Small animal. Probably a squirrel. Wait. Something else had been there. Maybe…two days ago. She drew her wand and walked toward the shack. Another deep breath. Something had definitely been there. She opened the door slowly and lit her wand so Harry could see. There were newspapers strewn everywhere. She went to the kitchen. The refrigerator had been opened. What little was left in one of the jars was now gone and the jar was on the floor. She ran back to the sitting room. The mantle. The picture. It was…on the floor. Smashed. Torn.

"Dammit…" she muttered.

"You make some enemies?"

"Yeah considering I've killed five of my own. Four of those while defending humans. I should've come back here sooner. I knew the charms would wear off."

"Anything here that could give you away?"

"Everything. Not many humans have jars of blood in the refrigerator and stocks of potions dedicated to keeping wits sharp and blood clean."

"Where are we?"

"Funny, you asked me that exact same question when we were horcrux hunting…I give you the exact same answer now. Forest of Dean. It was where I was brought when they took me. After I killed my attacker and I turned, I ran. I just ran. I came across this place. The inhabitants had been killed. Judging by the blood splatters it was a colony. I figured it would be safe since they'd been here already."

She moved around with a small bag tucking the unbroken jars of potion ingredients in, her cauldron, the smashed picture and frame, books, stash of gold.

"Where'd you get the gold?"

"I found jewelry and other things that I took to the small village just north of here and I pawned it all off it to a Wizard collector. I don't need to buy much so it's lasted. Just potion ingredients and milk, really. A few books when I first started."

She froze. There was something in the air. She drew her wand. Harry stood at the ready.

"What is it?"

"Harry, I'm going to ask you to do something and I need you to do it."

"I'm not leaving."

"That's not what I'm going to ask unless you tell me you can't do what I am going to ask of you."

"What is it?"

"Do not disarm. Kill."

"Hermione…"

"If you can't do it then leave."

"Hermione! The killing curse doesn't work when humans cast it against them!"

She growled. How could she forget…well it was easy. She wasn't human. Not being something you tend to forget what they can and can't do. She peered out the window. Four cloaked figures. If she was quick she could take them. She listened.

"The alarm was tripped. One human. One of us."

Fuck. Of course. This time with the humans was clouding her brain. She wasn't thinking clearly. Of course they'd set a trap. They had to catch her. Their top priority would be to catch their own that was killing them.

"Where are the others?"

"Watching the place where she killed the four."

Again, fuck. She grabbed onto Harry's arm and they landed next to the pond.

"What the hell was that, Hermione?"

"They're here. I don't care about my house but they're here."

They ran through the forest and stopped when they got to the edge. She took a deep breath. They weren't alone. She put a Disillusionment charm on Harry and he ran up to the Burrow. She saw the door open and close. One emerged from the forest. A jet of green from her wand and he was down. A second. A third. She didn't even realize that Harry was back at her side. He stupefied. She killed.

Four. Five. A long mane of red hair was on her other side now. Six. Seven. They kept coming. The long mane of hair was snatched away. Hermione followed. She couldn't get a clear shot. He kept lurching left and right. Through the woods.

"Let her go!"

She ran harder. She was almost there. There was only one way. She couldn't cast. There was only one other way. When she was close enough she jumped. Mouth open. She latched onto him. He yelled and let go. She pulled away. She aimed her wand at him. A flash of green. She licked her lips.

"Get out of here, Ginny!"

The redhead stood still.

"Ginny there are still some of them here, you have to leave!"

"Only if you come with me."

"I have to go find Harry."

She turned and ran through the woods back up to the house. Harry was nowhere to be found. The ones that had survived were gone now. A warm hand grabbed onto her shoulder and they landed just outside of Number 12 Grimmauld Place.


	11. Chapter 11

**-Chapter 11: Deep Breaths-**

It was March eighteenth. The Burrow was empty. Grimmauld Place was full. Hermione still refused to see Ginny. She kept her door locked. She made sure to ration the blood so she wouldn't be in pain. If Rose heard the cries…She didn't even want to think about it.

Harry assured her he was fine after the attack. When he saw Ginny being dragged away he Disapparated. He said Rose understood being there, it wasn't the first time they'd had to use Grimmauld as a safe house.

Luna had stopped giving blood. She needed it. The baby needed it. Harry was scared. He didn't want to bring a child into this world. This violent, blood thirsty world.

……………

Ginny took Rose up to their room on the first floor and lit a fire in the fireplace. She sat in the floor and the young girl snuggled up into her mother's arms.

"How come we're here Mum?"

"We need to talk, baby. We need to talk about a lot of things."

She'd thought about this since the day she first saw Hermione.

"Do you…do you remember what I do at my job, Rosie?"

"Yeah, you help Uncle Harry make bad things go away. V-vampires."

"Something like that, yes. What do you know about them?"

"One time when we went to Diagon Alley I heard some people say that they were all bad. They said that a vampire would um…they said they would kill their own family for…for the blood."

"First of all remind me to make you wear earmuffs next time we go there. Second, why didn't you tell me you heard that?"

"I thought you already knew. I don't like to be told stuff I already know so I figured you didn't either."

Ginny couldn't help but want to giggle a little at that. "You know how your Uncle George always says there's an exception to every rule?"

"You mean like how Gran says we gotta wait for a long time after lunch before we go swimming but Uncle George says he only had half a sandwich so he's only gotta wait half the time? He told me that was one of those like you just said. Exception to the rule."

"Exactly like that. Well…not…not all vampires are bad. Sometimes one of them tries to be good."

"Okay."

Ginny sighed. She couldn't do it. She didn't know how.

"Is that who is in the locked room?"

"Well…yes…"

"Will it hurt us?"

"No."

"Can I see?"

"Not right now."

……………

Ron sat with Hermione late that night. He convinced her to play a game of Wizard's Chess.

"How long has Ginny been working with you and Harry?" Hermione asked as Ron contemplated his next move.

"A couple years. King's side Bishop to B four." Hermione's knight fell.

"That's quite a drastic change from working in the games and sports department. Queen to D five."

"She left that job a few months after Rose was born."

"Oh…what did she do?"

"It's not really something we talk about, 'Mione. Queen's side Castle to D five. Checkmate."

Hermione growled and Ron put up the chess pieces. "I think I deserve to know what she's been up to, Ronald."

"Hermione…listen to me," Ron said, "what Ginny did…I'm pretty sure everything all of us ever did or ever saw will never compare to what she did there for a while, okay? If you ask her which was worse, the war or the first few years after you died she will tell you that it was the second one. The only one that knows exactly what was going on is her. She never told anyone. Not Mum or Dad or Harry or my brothers or _anyone_. She just says that she did her job and that was it. After that…All we know is what we've heard from others. Don't push it."

"Can you at least give me a general idea?"

"I think it's up to her to tell you, Hermione."

"I can't see her, Ron…I just can't. Why don't you just tell me? I've been patient and not asked any questions, I just want to know."

"Please don't push me into this, please. It…it's not my place."

"She was an Auror, wasn't she?"

Ron didn't say anything. He turned away from the vampire.

"Ron…"

"Please, Hermione. I-I can't talk about this. Please…"

Ron got up and left the room. Hermione heard his fist hit the wall just outside the door.

……………

It was April third. At one o'clock in the morning Harry looked into Ginny's bedroom. She wasn't there. He headed up and tripped over her on the top floor landing. She had been sitting facing Hermione's bedroom door.

"Ow, Harry! What are you doing?"

"Ginny…attack…Bristol. Hundreds…hundreds of them," Harry gasped as he scrambled back to a standing position. "I need your help with this…Ron and I can't do it alone."

Ginny sprang up off the floor. She headed to her room and grabbed her Ministry robes out of the wardrobe. When she ran downstairs to the sitting room Harry and Ron were waiting. And so was Hermione.

"No, Hermione, you can't," the redhead pleaded. "It's not safe."

"And you get to go? I…I have to do something. I'm going crazy being locked up here like an animal."

Ginny looked at Harry. Back to Hermione. Harry again. The man shrugged his shoulders.

"It's up to her but we need to get there _now_."

"I can help. I…I can sense them. I'll know if we're in danger."

They all raced outside. Everyone held on to Harry. There was a loud crack. When they landed Hermione took a deep breath.

Humans. Lots of blood. Dear sweet fucking gods there was a lot of blood. There were living humans. Wounded. Turning. Dead. It was too intense. She went weak at the knees. She felt hands on either side of her holding her up.

"Hermione…what is it? Is everything okay?" Ginny was on her left side.

"So much blood…" she murmured.

"Maybe you shouldn't be here…" Harry was on her right.

"No. No. Just give me a minute."

She straightened herself up. Another deep breath. Sort through it all. Humans. Blood. Living. Dying. Dead. Everything was human. Except the turning ones.

"There's a lot of wounded. A lot of them are turning...No danger yet."

The four of them ran to the nearest Ministry vehicle, Hermione kept her cloak hood up. She fumbled with the badge Harry had given her that was tucked in her pocket, just in case.

"Potter where the hell have you been?" A large man thundered.

"I'm not an Auror, sir. It's not my job to battle or dispose, just to do the numbers. Where do I start?"

"Wherever. I don't really give a shit."

"Look, Jacobs, there is really no reason for you to be a complete arse," Ginny shoved Harry aside. "Just because you think we're scum for not killing off the vampires like _your_ lot…"

"As I recall, Weasley, you used to be one of _my _lot. I do believe one of your last missions before your little vacation to St. Mungo's then transfer to Potter was escorting a colony to the Sahara to have them burned, was it not? I know you watched them burn, Weasley. I was there. And if my memory serves me right you smiled when the sun came up."

Ginny growled. Hermione felt slightly ill.

"Just give us the rundown you prat."

"Fine. From what we can estimate there were no less than a hundred and fifty filthy blood-suckers running around Bristol for about an hour. The bodies are literally everywhere so I suggest getting started with the count as soon as possible."

Ginny growled again and made a move towards the large man, Harry held her back.

"What's your problem Weasley? You one of them now?"

"No. I just don't like you."

The man scoffed and Harry pulled her away. The foursome made their way through the streets, stopping occasionally for Hermione to take a deep breath. Harry marked the bodies. Ron took notes and kept track of the numbers. Ginny twitched when they would find one that had been infected. She knew what was going to happen to them.

A letter would be sent to the family just like it was to the ones of the dead. They would never know that their loved one had lived beyond the attack. They would never know that they went through the pain of turning…then the pain of the stake going through their chest. She'd never actually watched a complete turning. Just the last part.

"Ginny…" Hermione walked close by. "What that man said…about…what you did…about St. Mungo's..."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"I think you should."

Ginny whipped around. She stared into the hood that was covering Hermione's face and growled. Ron started shaking.

"Ginny…" Harry stepped towards her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Ginny, we've got work to do. If you can't do it then you should go back to Grimmauld."

Ginny shook her head. "I can do this. I can."

She grabbed Ron's clipboard and started walking with Harry.

Hermione took a deep breath. It was still all human. And Ginny was crying.


	12. Chapter 12

**-Chapter 12: Her Past-**

The city of Bristol was literally painted red. There were one hundred seventy-five dead, one-hundred and fifty-two wounded. More than half of the wounded were infected. Another fifty-three were reported as missing over the next week. Ginny left before the disposal unit started working.

She put on a happy face for Rose but inside…inside her heart was being ripped apart by past memories.

"I quit, Harry. Consider this my official resignation." Ginny handed Harry a piece of parchment exactly seven days from the night they spent in Bristol. He only nodded.

Rose was sleeping in Molly and Arthur's room now.

Harry and Ron barely slept because of all the paperwork and worrying about Ginny.

Ginny was in the other room on the top floor. She had a silencing charm cast on it. It shared part of a wall with Hermione's room. The vampire countered the charm on the wall they shared. The two would listen to each other pace during the night but they never said anything. The small door that connected the two rooms remained locked until the twenty-fourth of April.

Ginny was crying again. Hermione didn't have to take a deep breath to know it. She could hear the sobs. She had heard Harry and Ron try to convince Ginny to go to St. Mungo's almost every day. The redhead refused. It was three-thirty in the morning. Hermione unlocked the door and stepped into Ginny's room. Ginny was curled up with her back to Hermione. She held a pillow against her front and sobbed into it. There was a creak in the floorboards as Hermione took a step forward. Ginny quickly sat up and brandished her wand. Hermione waved her hand and the lights in Ginny's room came up. Hermione's eyes hurt at the light but she wanted Ginny to see her.

"Ginny…I…I know I'm not…Please talk to me."

Ginny tossed her wand back on the bedside cabinet and laid back down on the bed.

"I don't need to talk. I need to be left alone."

"I think you're lying to me."

"I think you need to mind your own fucking business."

"Ginny I just want to help you."

"You're the one that left me with an unborn child."

"You know I couldn't come back and that's not what this is about!"

"I would've protected you."

"I couldn't have asked you to do that, Ginny. That's too much sacrifice on your part."

Ginny sat upright again and glared at Hermione. "What? I'm your fucking _wife_! _Nothing_ is too much of a sacrifice! Anything we would've gone through together would have been infinitely better than what I had to go through alone, Hermione."

"Tell me what that was then, Ginny! Tell me what happened! Tell me why you are acting like this…why, on the rare occasions that you have slept in the last month, have you cried yourself to sleep? Why, Ginny? Just please talk to me!"

"Please just...just go. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to go to the hospital. I just want to be left alone."

Hermione closed her eyes. How, after almost eight years, could the redhead still be so infuriating? How could she still think that it was perfectly fine to bottle everything up? There was a crash. Hermione opened her eyes to see that a glass vase that had been sitting on the chest of drawers had spontaneously combusted. She forgot she could do that. Ginny looked at her. To the vase. Back to her.

"Why are you still here, Hermione?"

"Because you need someone to talk to."

Ginny stood up and in an instant she was nose to nose with Hermione. Neither had noticed that Harry and Ron were now standing in the room, having heard the crash.

"Do you want to know what I did after I thought you died, Hermione? Do you want to hear how it was my job for four years to come after the attacks and drive a stake through the heart of the ones that survived enough to turn? Do you want to hear how I imagined every single one of them as being the one that I knew took you? Do you want to hear about how I ignored the pleas of the ones that swore to me that they would resist it? How even though they promised me with their last breath that they would be good and resist it all, I fucking drove that goddamn stake right into their chest and listened to them scream for a good five minutes before their pain ended? Is that what you want to hear from me? How about this_…"_

……………

_The redhead walked the streets of Surrey with her trainer. She held the clipboard with the map of their area and the locations of the turning. She recognized Ron's handwriting. Screams echoed through the streets. Her trainer assured her that she would get used to them, she'd have to. It was the second time she'd been out after an attack. The first that she'd been with a member of the disposal unit. They found their first victim. She would never forget him. It was a man, middle aged. His thinning brown hair had streaks of gray through it. His eyes hadn't turned yet. They were hazel. His skin was pale and covered in blood. He held on to the two puncture wounds in his neck and writhed on the ground in pain._

"_You want to give it a go?" her trainer asked._

"_I-I've never seen it…"_

"_Best way to do it then. Most everyone turns down the job if they watch it first. You just need to go for it."_

_He handed her the heavy, wooden stake. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath._

"_Just put the point right there, a little to the left. There, that's it."_

"_No!" the man on the ground yelled. "No! Please! I have…a family! Please! My wife and sons, please!"_

"_Never listen to them, Weasley. The minute the turning is complete they'll just go off and start looking for victims. It could be their family, they don't care. Now push hard and stand back."_

_She'd never heard a scream like it. It was more than pain. It was the scream of someone who knew they were going to die. Knew what they were leaving behind. Knew their family would soon get a letter. _

_Ginny ran to the nearest alley. She knew she shouldn't have eaten that hamburger in the Muggle diner._

"_Don't worry about it Weasley. Most people don't even stay conscious the first time so you're doing pretty good," her trainer said when she returned. "What'd you think?"_

"_I don't know."_

"_Sometimes it helps to think of someone else. For me it's the one that took my eldest son."_

……………

Hermione couldn't speak. There were absolutely no words. There were no words from a book or anything she had ever read that could even come close to responding to what Ginny had just told her. Harry and Ron stood, mouths gaped open.

"Anymore questions, Hermione? Anything else you want to know? You want to hear how I stood by and watched with a crossbow loaded with stakes as the sun came up in the Sahara and I listened to the screams of fifty-seven vampires as they literally disintegrated right before my eyes? Or how about that after that…I couldn't get the screams out of my head and I spent more than half a year in St. Mungo's in a bed next to the Longbottoms? How I went mad because of the nightmares and even madder because I wouldn't sleep for weeks at a time? That's why I am working for Harry, you know? Because no one else would take the psycho-fucking-pathic former vampire killer! He was the only one in the entire Ministry that would take me. The only-fucking-one! I was treated like a fucking animal_…_"

……………

"_I've been her for two weeks, would you just let me go already?" Ginny paced the floor by her bed and mumbled to the Healer standing nearby._

"_You know we can't do that Miss Weasley."_

"_Do we really need to have this discussion again? I have a wedding ring. I'm not a 'miss'. God you people are incompetent. Is there at least some other hospital I can go to that'll get my name right?"_

"_I'm sorry Mrs. Weasley. You know we can't release you though."_

"_Can you at least not tie me to the fucking bed every night?"_

"_If you'd take the potions we may not have to."_

"_I'll just stop sleeping then. Can you send a letter to my parents since you think I'm not sane enough to use a quill? Tell them I want to see my daughter."_

"_I'm not sure that's such a good idea…"_

"_I want to see my daughter!"_

"_And I want you to take your potions at night as directed."_

……………

"_Are you going to sleep tonight Ginny?" the Healer asked. "You haven't slept in six days. You know what happens when you don't sleep."_

_The redhead sat cross-legged on her bed and stared at the wall._

"_I want to see my daughter."_

"_You saw her yesterday."_

"_Stop lying to me."_

"_I'm not lying to you, Ginny. She was here with your parents and your brother, Ron. You really need to sleep tonight, dear."_

"_I slept last night."_

_The healer sighed. It had been the same pattern for nearly two months now. She wouldn't sleep for days at a time, so far her record was twelve days, and when she did it would almost always turn violent from the nightmares because she still refused the Dreamless Sleep Potion._

"_If you take the potions tonight and sleep I will tell your parents to bring Rose in tomorrow. If you can do that every night for a while then you can go home. You know the deal."_

"_I want to go back to work."_

"_We talked about this last week, Ginny. You were dismissed from your position. Mr. Potter has agreed to take you on in his department but only after you're well. Please sleep tonight, for your daughter."_

_"I don't want to sleep. Hermione comes to see me when I don't sleep."_

_"Those are just hallucinations, Ginny. She's gone and she isn't really there."_

_"Yes she is. Go away."_

……………

Hermione swallowed. She was a little bit glad she couldn't cry anymore. She looked at Ron and Harry. The ginger man hung his head. Ginny kept yelling.

"Our daughter…my baby girl…I barely know her because the first five years of her life I wasn't there. My parents and Harry and Luna and even Ron fucking raised her. After I got out of the hospital…another three months of not working…she couldn't figure out why the hell I was around! She thought it was Mummy's job to not fucking be there! I was so obsessed with killing...so obsessed with revenge that I just…I don't even know. I don't know what I was thinking. Is this what you want me to tell you about? You want me to fucking talk to you…"

Ginny dropped to her knees and sobbed into the floor.

"How about…how about I tell you that the reason I took the assignment to the desert was because two days before…there was an attack. And one of the infected…was a fucking child! A child, Hermione! And he was in my area! I couldn't ask anyone to do it for me. I checked his records the next day, he would have started Hogwarts that year. No doubt he would have been a Gryffindor, too. When I stood over him…he…he told me he understood. Before the pain of turning really hit him…he told me…he told me that he didn't want to live with the vampires because he knew what they did to good people and he didn't want to be like that. He was the only one I _ever_ cast a silencing charm on. The desert…I…I thought it would be easier…to not have to look in their eyes…only from a distance…"

Ginny scrambled across the floor to the trash bin. As she was heaving, Hermione looked at Harry and Ron. Both grown men stood in the doorway wiping the plethora of tears away from their faces. Ron looked even paler than he already was.

"My God…" Harry whispered.

"Are you all fucking happy now?" Ginny cried from the corner of the room where she held onto the bin.

"Ginny, I…I don't…" Ron was on the verge of sobbing.

"Your job, Gin…you were just…doing your job…"

"I was a goddamn cold-blooded killer, Harry! One hundred and ninety-seven! That's how many died at my hand!" she yelled. "I was no better than a Death Eater!"

"Ginny it was either that or have them turn and kill more…"

"No, Ron! Look at Hermione…fucking look at her! If she could…I know some of them could have…that boy…that little boy…" she vomited again. She felt the rough, calloused hands of her brother hold on to her shoulders and then wrap around her. Hermione's cold fingers slipped through her hair. Harry left and came back with a damp, cool cloth which Hermione wiped her face with.

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…Ron…please…I'm so…sorry…" Ginny sobbed.

"I'm sorry, too Ginny…" Ron held on tight around Ginny's shoulders.

"I…forgive you…please Ron…just…make the pain go away…"

"I love you, Gin. You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay…" Ron choked. He cried with his sister.

Hermione looked at Harry. The man shook his head.

"Don't ask," Harry mouthed. "Not right now."

Hermione nodded.

They all took shifts during the rest of the night in the drawing room sitting with Ginny. They didn't talk about it. They just sat. The redhead slept some. The next day they all had to be normal. Whether they were pretending or not, they had to be for the sake of the bouncing seven-year-old that needed her innocence preserved as long as possible.


	13. Chapter 13

**-Chapter 13: Her Past, Part II-**

The next afternoon was the first time Ron and Hermione spent time alone since their game of Wizard's Chess.

"Ron…something Ginny said last night…she forgives you…"

"I never thought she would. Not after what I put her though."

"Are you going to tell me?"

"I might as well…"

……………

_Ron walked into the large room and passed the rows of beds on his way to his sister's. She sat with her knees hugged to her chest._

"_Mr. Weasley, how are you?" one of the Healers asked before he got to Ginny's bed._

"_I'm fine, thanks. How is she today?"_

"_She's refusing to eat now and her insomnia is getting worse. She's still refusing all of the potions…I'm afraid if she doesn't start sleeping soon and taking the memory potions that the damage will be irreversible."_

_Ron sighed._

"_Okay," he said with a nod. "Thanks."_

_Ron walked the rest of the way to Ginny's bed. He pulled a chair up next to the bed. Ginny didn't look at him._

"_How we doin' today, Gin?"_

_Ginny slowly turned her head to look at him._

"_You need to eat, sis. I know the food is terrible but you've got to. I'll see if Mum can fix up some chicken and ham pie to bring next time she's here but until then you've got to eat what they give you."_

_Ginny stared at him and didn't say anything._

"_Why won't you sleep, Ginny? You know if you sleep you'll get to go home. Rose needs you. She misses you so much. All of us do."_

"_I don't know you."_

"_You used to."_

"_How?"_

"_I'm your brother, Ginny. I've told you this a few times a week for the last two months. If you'd sleep then you would remember. If you continue not sleeping you're going to do permanent damage."_

"_She doesn't come to me if I sleep."_

_Ron sighed._

"_Please, Ginny…please."_

"_Go away. I don't know you. Don't tell me what to do! I don't know you! Get away!" Ginny screamed at him and rocked herself back and forth._

"_Okay, I'm leaving." Ron stood. "Ginny…I-I'm sorry. I didn't want to do this but you haven't really given me a choice." He walked away from the bed. Ginny was silent as she stared into space. He knew she hadn't heard him. She wasn't really there._

_He motioned to Ginny's healer and pulled the woman aside. He swallowed hard and held back his tears._

"_You know that's not her, Mr. Weasley."_

"_I know it isn't. It hasn't been since the day she got here. Four bloody months, I can't even believe it. Anyways…Listen…you told me a few weeks ago when the memory loss started…you told me that if she didn't improve…that it was up to my parents and I to start making decisions."_

"_I did."_

"_I think we ought to start right now. First off, I want her in her own room. She's not going to go through this in front of everyone in the bloody ward."_

"_Yes, sir."_

"_Second…" Ron took a deep breath. He'd never be completely forgiven and he knew it. "She has to sleep. Even if she refuses I want her to take the potions. By trick or by…by f-force. I don't care."_

"_You know what force entails, don't you Mr. Weasley?"_

"_I do. But if tying her to the bed and forcing it is what it takes then that's what needs to be done otherwise she'll be here forever. I'm not going to put our family through that, especially her daughter. That girl needs her mother back."_

……………

_Ron stood outside the door of Ginny's private room. He looked in through the window and felt his stomach lurch. It had been a month since they moved her. He wouldn't allow his parents to come see Ginny since then. He took a deep breath and stepped inside. Ginny immediately looked at him with pure hatred in her eyes._

"_Why the fuck are you here!" she yelled at him. "Get out of my room you bastard! Get the fuck out!"_

_He was sure if she hadn't been restrained he'd be dead. At least she knew who he was now. It took a week and a half of sleeping and memory potions for her to start recognizing him again. She was blaming her parents at the time. The first time he heard her mention it he told her the truth._

"_Ginny…"_

"_Get out of my goddamn room Ronald! Get out! I hate you!"_

"_I care about you, Ginny. Please try to understand. Please."_

"_I will never forgive you for this. You've fucking humiliated me. You should've left me alone!"_

"_Rose needs you, Ginny! Do you forget that you have a daughter! She needs a mother!"_

"_She doesn't need me."_

"_Yes she does!" Ron thundered. "It's not Mum and Dad's job to raise her! Nor is it Harry and Luna's or mine anyone else's but yours. You are going to get better and go home and raise your daughter. Do you honestly think Hermione would want you to do this, Ginny? She would be so pissed off at you if she were here right now."_

_Ginny was silent for the first time. She didn't yell or try to break out of her restraints to kill her brother._

"_I'm going to tell them to take off the restraints. If…if you sleep every night and eat voluntarily for a while…you can come home. I don't care who or what you do it for…just do it, okay?"_

_Ron left the room. He went back nearly every day but never went inside. He knew of her progress by what the Healers told him and by watching through the window._

_He returned a month later with Molly and regular clothes for Ginny to wear home. They were met in the Burrow's sitting room by Rose who nearly tackled Ginny. The redheaded woman cried as she held her daughter tight. Ron stood back and watched. When Ginny finally let go of Rose the young girl went to get the gift she'd made for her mother and Ginny walked over to Ron and lowered her voice so only he could hear._

"_I don't forgive you, Ron. Just remember that. I will _never _fucking forgive you for telling them to treat me like an animal. I'll be civil to you for Mum and Dad's sake but that is all. Got it?"_

"_I know, Ginny."_

……………

"It wasn't your fault, Ron."

"Yes it was, 'Mione. And I'm glad it was. I don't regret for one second putting her in that room. It's just…it's hard to talk about because of how she was for a while. She didn't know who anyone was for two months. Rose…Rose was so…if that girl isn't in Gryffindor I'll be shocked as hell. Even though Ginny didn't know who she was and had barely spent time at home, Rose still wanted to come see her and bring her gifts and read stories. She cried every time we told her she couldn't go see Ginny after they moved her."

"Do you really think Ginny will be okay?"

"You want me to be completely honest?"

"Yeah."

"If you stick around she will be. But if you fucking up and leave again she will probably end up back there or worse."

"Ron…I can't just have all of you keep slicing your arms open and giving me blood. If you want me to stay then something else has got to be done."

"We have nothing else right now, Hermione. I promise though, I will do anything to make you stay. I'll start working as soon as I can to find something else. It will take time though, please just be patient."

"Okay."


	14. Chapter 14

**-Chapter 14: The Ring-**

It was the eighth of May. Ron still hadn't found an alternative. Hermione was getting restless.

"You guys, please…please just let me go do it. Ron…I…please. This…it's doing things to me. I can't just have the same over and over again, I need something different."

"Hermione, we're trying. We can't just let you start killing prisoners again though! The Ministry would go crazy and turn the place upside-down since they think you've stopped. The only thing I can think of is to break into a Muggle blood bank or something…"

"We'll do that then! Please, you have no idea how hard this is for me. I may have resisted a lot but I still have instincts that I can't control if I'm trapped."

Ron looked at Harry worriedly. He pulled the raven haired man out of the room. Hermione caught a glimpse into the hallway and saw Ginny heading down the stairs.

"Harry maybe it's not safe to keep her here anymore…maybe we should think about taking her to the Burrow or something. Still keep her safe but keep her away, you know?"

"Maybe we should let her have one or two."

"What?!"

"Well the Ministry wouldn't have to know…"

"Are you off your fucking rocker, mate?!"

"What else are we going to do, Ron!? She said it herself that she's needs something different or else her instincts might take over. If we can get her just a little bit of something different and keep rotating that with what we're giving her that would last for a while. It would buy us some time, at least."

Hermione listened to the voices outside her door. She could easily cast a Super-Sensory charm to hear exactly what was being said but she was too busy thinking of how she could get out of the house if they told her she wasn't going anywhere.

Harry stepped back into Hermione's room. She was pacing the floor.

"Here's the deal, Hermione. You get to do it but I go with you. You're going to do whatever it is you normally do but you'll still have to take what we give you, too, so that we can stretch it out but at least you'll have some variety. Ron…he doesn't like the plan, but he agrees we have no other ideas or options right now."

Hermione nodded. "When?"

"Whenever you're ready."

Hermione picked up the small bag on her desk that she had taken from her house. She looked around in it and closed it, satisfied.

"All I need is a target."

"I suggest the guy you were going after in January."

"Why are you doing this for me, Harry?"

"Even though I wanted to solve the case from the beginning…I couldn't help but think…especially the ones that were in for things they did to kids…I couldn't help but think that maybe it wasn't such a horrible thing. Honestly, if we hadn't been so determined that you were actually the one that took you then I probably wouldn't have paid as much attention to it."

"Of course, us vigilantes are supposed to support each other." Hermione smiled.

"Something has been bothering me for a while though. How the hell did you get those letters to Ginny completely undetected? We had people sitting at her desk around the clock on days we knew we would get the letters. They said they would blink and the damn thing would just appear."

Hermione smirked. "I'm surprised you waited this long to ask."

"I figure since I'm about to find out how you do all of this I should go ahead and find out everything." Harry laughed.

"You'll either be proud of me or yell at me for being a hypocrite but I found an old spell book in a shop. It had dozens of notes and spells written in it. I was half expecting to see 'this book is property of the Half-Blood Prince' written inside it. It wasn't but…it still was basically the same as Snape's book. On one of the blank pages was a spell detailing how to Apparate objects by themselves. Even if you didn't know the exact location it gave instructions on how to ensure it would get where it needed to."

Harry chuckled. "You're not ever allowed to give me grief about that again! When did you have time to do this though? There was only a week between the attack on Diagon Alley and your first…well, you know."

"Five days before my first kill I found the village. That was when I pawned off most of the things in the house that I knew I wouldn't need. As you've seen I got quite a bit out of it. I bought everything I'd need that day plus the books. I basically didn't sleep for those few days. I spent all of it studying the spell book, perfecting my summoning charms, going through the newspapers, cleaning, repairing and blacking out the windows even though I didn't really need to right then, I could've waited until after the leaves had fallen since the forest was so thick that the sun didn't come through."

Harry shook his head. "You never cease to amaze me, 'Mione. You should've been in Ravenclaw, I swear it."

"I think the Sorting Hat knew I'd have to keep yours and Ron's arses out of trouble."

"I can't argue with that theory. So are we going?"

"I'm ready when you are."

As they made their way down the staircase the grandfather clock in the sitting room struck midnight and the lamps on the walls lit their path. Just as Harry opened the front door to let the two of them outside there was a cough. They turned to see Ginny staring at the both of them, tears in her eyes.

"We're coming back, Gin," Harry said. Hermione nodded.

Ginny looked at the floor. She held her hand up and in a few seconds something that neither Harry or Hermione saw flew into her palm and she closed her fist around it. Without looking up she walked over to the duo and grabbed on to Hermione's wrist. Hermione held out her hand and Ginny dropped something into it and closed Hermione's fingers around it.

Ginny swallowed hard and looked up at Hermione. The vampire leaned in but Ginny pulled away and ran to the stairs. Hermione opened her fist and in the palm of her hand was a simple, gold band.

"Wh-what's this supposed to mean, Harry?"

"I have no idea."

"Well is she telling me to leave or to stay?"

"Hermione, I don't know."

"Look at it closer," a voice from the staircase said. Hermione looked up to see Molly standing there. "Look on the inside."

Hermione did. There, in small manuscript it was engraved:

_Forever and Always_

"She had it done right after Rose was born."

"Okay? She hasn't spoken to me for two weeks and now she hands me my wedding ring…could she be any more confusing?"

"She thinks it's up to you now, dear. Now that you know what happened, what she went through, she says it's up to you as to whether or not you stay or go."

"And she couldn't just tell me this?"

Molly shrugged and headed back up the stairs.

Harry looked at the open door. His hand gripped tight to the handle. A gust of air blew in. Hermione took a deep breath. Freedom was literally inches away from her. She looked to the open door, then to Harry. She looked back towards the staircase. Back to the door. She stepped outside and looked back at Harry.

"I can't ask any more of you, Harry. She's given me the option and I think she knows which one I will take."

"It will still be hard on her."

"Me being here isn't easy on her, either."

"I can't disagree with you. Ron, however…"

"Tell him I'm sorry."

"Well," Harry said, "I guess uh…I guess I'll be seeing you around then? At least send us letters every now and then, you know, tell us how you're doing."

"Thanks for everything, Harry."

He only nodded and shut the door.


	15. Chapter 15

**-Chapter 15: The Park-**

She landed in the prison and drew her wand. Her Disillusionment charm left a bit to be desired but everyone was asleep anyways. She found the cell she wanted and Apparated in. She body bound the man on the top bunk and cast a silencing charm on the one on the bottom.

The taste was perfect. It was different, exactly what she'd been craving. After a jet of green from her wand the man was still. She pulled a few jars out of her bag and aimed her wand at the puncture wounds on the man's neck.

"_Accio."_

A steady, red stream started pouring out and filling the jars. She kept her concentration until all of the jars were filled. She packed the jars back into the bag then looked at the second man. She could take him but it wouldn't taste as good after it'd been sitting for a while. She was free…she could come back whenever she needed.

She landed near her house. A deep breath. Nothing. She made her way to the dilapidated building and cast a few counter spells just to make sure nothing would alert anyone to her presence. She stepped inside. It was the same as it had been. She stocked the jars in the refrigerator and tossed out the rancid milk. She conjured water into a deep rectangular tub. She thought back to the conversation she'd just had with Harry about the book she had been using, she'd found a charm to cause any liquid to slowly turn cold and then freeze. She smiled as she aimed her wand at the water and it started to freeze. After a few minutes it was a solid block of ice. She hoisted it into the refrigerator.

She walked around the outside of the house putting up the protective charms and spells. She went back inside and pulled the clock out of her bag. It had stopped. She realized she had no idea what time it was. She'd left Grimmauld Place just after midnight…it had been a couple of hours at least. She guessed 2:30. There was more work to be done. Potions to be brewed. Blood to be cleaned. Instead she sat in an armchair. She already missed the sound of Ginny's footsteps pacing the floor.

……………

Ginny walked down to lunch the next afternoon. She knew Hermione hadn't come back. She heard Rose's voice as she went down the stairs. When she appeared in the kitchen doorway the young girl leapt out of her seat and ran into Ginny's arms.

"Gran told me you were sick today!"

"Well I'm feeling much better. So much better, in fact, I thought you and I might go to the park after lunch. Would you like that?"

Rose smiled and hugged Ginny again and the two settled down to the kitchen table to ham sandwiches.

"Ginny are you sure you feel well enough to get out today?" Harry asked.

"I feel fine, Harry. Thank you. I think the fresh air will do me some good."

"Ginny…"

"The choice was made, Ron. I can't do much about it. Rose is my first priority."

Ginny led Rose by the hand to the park a few blocks from Grimmauld Place. She watched as the young girl ran around on the play equipment. She pushed her on the swings and joined her on the see-saw. They took a rest on a park bench and watched people feed the ducks in the pond.

"Can we come back here soon, Mum?" Rose asked.

"Every day if you want, Rosie."

"What about your work? And the…the you-know-what."

"I'm not working anymore. It's gone now so you're all I'm going to worry about from now on, okay?"

"Okay. Are you going to go back to the Ministry with Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron and Grandad?"

"Not for a while."

"I like that."

"Me too."

The young girl moved her closer to Ginny and held onto the redhead's arm. Ginny sighed and buried her head in her hands. She did her best not to let the tears escape.

"Rosie, you know I love you, right?"

"I love you too, Mum."

"I'm going to do better baby girl…I promise."

Ginny held on to her daughter tight.

"It's okay that you get sick sometimes. Gran and Grandad take good care of me. Even Aunt Luna and Uncle Harry help. And Uncle Ron is funny. The other day while Uncle Harry fell asleep on the couch Uncle Ron made a pink mustache grow on his face. He didn't know what was so funny when he woke up. Then when he saw it he said bad words at Uncle Ron and made his hair turn purple."

Ginny managed a smile.

"Remind me to yell at your Uncle Harry for saying bad words in front of you."

The nightmares still came. They were always about Hermione. Ginny held the wooden stake in her hand. She put the point on the vampire's chest and pushed. Hermione's screams echoed through her brain. She would wake up in a cold sweat. The one set of footsteps she wanted to hear was never the set that came into her room.


	16. Chapter 16

**-Chapter 16: Three Words-**

It was the seventeenth of May. Ginny woke in the middle of the night. For the first time in weeks it wasn't because of nightmares. She wasn't sure what it was, exactly. She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. She listened to the room next door. There was nothing, just like it had been since she left.

……………

It had been nine days. She had barely slept. Freedom was supposed to be sweet. She was absolutely miserable. She wrote a letter and sent it.

She slipped the full jars into her bag along with the clock and all of her other possessions. She put on her cloak and pulled the hood up. She turned and landed outside a row of houses. She walked up to her target building. A man was sitting on the steps that led to the front door.

"I assume you got my letter?" she asked.

"I did," Harry replied.

"How's it been?"

"The nightmares are worse. She puts on a happy face for Rose during the day but night…night is just bad. We're waiting for the day when she breaks, honestly. She keeps insisting that since Rose is happy that's all the motivation she needs to keep going. What about you? All your note said was that you were coming tonight."

"I'm here with my bag, what does that tell you about how I've been?"

"You're sure about this, Hermione?"

"I'm absolutely miserable, Harry. I'd rather live in that small room with no freedom but know that Ginny might come around and start talking to me than to have complete freedom and not have that possibility. Despite the fact that she refused to speak to me after what happened…there's still…there's something there. I need her, Harry. I just…I need her. Something keeps telling me that this is where I belong."

"Okay. I guess…just go on up then."

Hermione handed Harry the jars of red liquid and stepped inside. Harry headed downstairs to the kitchen. Hermione headed upstairs to the top landing.

Ginny rolled over in her bed again. The knob on the door to her room creaked and the door slowly pushed open.

"Ginny…" a soft voice echoed. "Are…are you awake?"

Ginny sat bolt upright in the bed.

"Oh my God. H-Hermione?"

"Yeah."

"You came back…"

"I did."

Ginny waved her hand and the lights in her room came up. Hermione stepped into the room and shut the door.

"Why?"

"Several reasons. Mostly because I missed listening to you pace back and forth in the middle of the night."

"But…what I did…How could you possibly want to come back here?"

"Something just told me I needed to."

"Hermione…I'm a fucking murderer. I killed…"

"You're not a murderer. I've seen murderers, Ginny. I've seen them. They have no remorse for what they've done. You did what you did and you've spent more than enough time regretting it."

Ginny turned her head away from Hermione. She stared down at the bed.

"I just…I wanted you, Hermione. Some incredibly irrational part of me thought all of it would bring you back. God I should never have been allowed to raise a child…Not that I did much of that for a while anyways."

"Seems like she turned out all right."

Ginny got out of bed and picked up a rag and started finding things to clean. It was silent. She cleaned the same mirror three times in a matter of minutes. She was getting ready to clean the window sill for the fourth time when she felt slender, cold fingers gently move her hair and touch the back of her neck. She dropped the rag.

Hermione took a deep breath. She didn't smell blood. Not sweat. Not human. She smelled Ginny. And it was the exact same as the first time she'd stood behind the redhead and taken a deep breath.

……………

"_He's not worth it, Ginny. Dean's just an idiot. Come on, come back to the party. You should be celebrating tonight. You were amazing out there today. Harry won't shut up about that last goal you scored."_

_Ginny was leaning on one of the sinks in the girls' lavatory. Dean wasn't the reason she was crying. She couldn't care less that he'd been all over some Hufflepuff girl at the party. It was the girl behind her that was the problem. Dean was just a toy. There was a tingling sensation on the back of her neck as warm, slender fingers brushed her hair out of the way and moved to her shoulder, trying to pull her around. Hermione took a deep breath. Vanilla. The body splash she had given Ginny for Christmas._

"_Please go away, Hermione. You're not exactly who I need to talk to right now."_

"_You can tell me anything, Gin. You…you know you can trust me."_

_Ginny ran out of the lavatory. Hermione followed her. They ran through the corridors until Ginny went into an abandoned classroom. Hermione ran in after her. She was met by fierce light brown eyes. _

"_You want to know what's wrong with me, Hermione? I've been after someone since I was eleven years old and…"_

"_Ginny, Harry will come around. You've…"_

"_It's not Harry! Oh my God, Hermione! For someone so smart you can be so incredibly thick sometimes."_

"_You are making absolutely no sense at all, Ginny."_

_Ginny slipped one hand behind Hermione's neck. She pulled her in close and their lips almost touched. She waited for Hermione to pull away but instead her slender fingers found their way to the back of Ginny's neck again. Their lips crashed together. Tongues collided, moans escaped, hands explored over fabric._

"_Do you understand now?" Ginny asked. They had somehow ended up lying on a desk. Hermione's head was on Ginny's chest and she played with the fabric of Ginny's t-shirt. Hermione was crying. Ginny was stunned. "Am I that bad of a kisser?"_

"_N-no…y-you're an excellent k-kisser. I just didn't know I c-could feel like this…"_

……………

Ginny leaned on the window sill.

"What am I to you, Hermione? I know what the bite does. I know it's supposed to take away all sympathy, all feeling. Obviously it didn't take full effect on you but you used to cry all the time…and while you were here I didn't hear or see a single thing."

"I can't cry anymore, Gin. All those years I wished I couldn't…Now I'd give almost anything to be able to. I feel like I could sometimes though but the tears never come. Aside from the whole thirst for blood thing that's one thing it did do…"

"Oh…So…what about my question? What am I? What are we?"

"I came back for you, Ginny. What do you think?"

Ginny turned around and touched her fingertips to Hermione's cheek.

"Just tell me, Hermione…I need to hear it…"

Hermione brought her left hand up and cupped Ginny's face. The redhead held onto it and her fingers met with Hermione's cold flesh and solid metal band that was on one of her slender fingers.

"Forever and always, Ginny."

Ginny leaned in. Their lips barely touched. Hermione's stomach lurched. She pulled back. She whimpered and held on to her abdomen.

"What's wrong, Hermione?"

"N-nothing."

"Don't lie to me."

Hermione collapsed onto Ginny's bed and curled up in a ball. She held on to her stomach. She took deep breaths. She could get through this. She could do it. She didn't need it. No. She resisted so much already. She could do this. She'd gone longer without it. It had been…how long had it been? However long it had been, she'd gone longer. She could do it.

"I can do it…I don't need it…" the brunette mumbled the mantra over and over.

The redhead knelt down by the bed. Slender fingers weaved through Hermione's hair. A smooth voice echoed through her ears.

"Don't fight it, baby," she whispered. "You know it'll only hurt."

Hermione could only whimper and clutch her stomach. A pair of lips pressed against her forehead. The fingers were gone and so was Ginny. Hermione watched from the bed as the redhead stood and walked over to the desk. A flash of light reflected off of the piece of silver Ginny picked up off the desk.

"Don't Ginny…please…don't…"

"Would you rather be in pain?"

"Don't do it…I'm fine. I can get through it."

She sat up. She forced a smile. It was starting to burn.

"You know, Harry or Ron might've bought that," Ginny said when she sat down on the bed facing Hermione who was now starting to tremble. "But I know you better."

She kept Hermione's gaze locked.

"Ginny…"

Ginny leaned in and her warm lips were met with the cold of Hermione's. She opened her mouth and invited the vampire's tongue to dance with her own. Hermione's fingers found their way through Ginny's hair. The redhead let out a painful cry and pulled away. Hermione saw tears well up in Ginny's eyes. A scent filled the air. That beautiful scent that had brought her out of the pain when she'd first arrived. The human raised her forearm which was now dripping with blood. The silver was tainted with red. It dropped to the floor.

"Do it," Ginny commanded. "Just don't…you know."

Hermione wrapped her fingers around Ginny's wrist and brought the flesh to her lips. Her tongue ran along the length of the cut, cleaning what had oozed out already. The pain started to ease.

"Why are you doing this, Ginny?"

"Because I'd do anything for you," she whispered. "I love you, Hermione…I never stopped and I never will. Not a single day has gone by since I was eleven years old that I haven't thought about you. I love you…"

Hermione kissed the open wound. Her entire head burned. She lurched backwards and grabbed on. Her skull was on fire. The burning traveled around her entire body. She cried out. The forearm of the human pressed against her mouth while the other hand held the back of her head. It tasted…horrible. Oh gods. She pushed it away. She cried and screamed for it to stop. It hurt. Gods it fucking hurt.

"Kill me…oh gods please just fucking kill me!"

Ginny cast the silencing charm at the writhing vampire. She went to get Luna. The blonde came running into the room and looked over Hermione who was flailing around.

"I don't get it…"

"What? What is it, Luna?"

"She looks like she's…turning."

"What! No she…" Ginny took a second look at Hermione, "…oh my God! What…what the hell! Do something!"

"I don't know what to do! Vampires can't turn twice!"

"What if she's turning back?"

"That's impossible, Ginny!"


	17. Chapter 17

**-Chapter 17: Second Turning-**

Hermione continued trying to scream. God it burned. It felt like when she turned. It was impossible though. Water. She wanted water. She wanted to be submerged in it. Cold water. Every move burned. She had to move though. She fell out of the bed. There were two pairs of hands on her but only for a split second.

"Luna…she's fucking burning!"

"I know Ginny, I know!"

The redhead knelt down next to the woman on the floor. She aimed her wand. The silencing charm lifted.

"Water…for the love of Merlin put me in cold water!"

Luna ran to the bathroom and turned the cold tap on. Ginny wrapped a blanket around the burning brunette and pulled her to the bathroom.

She jumped into the tub, clothes and all. Oh God yes. It felt good. Yes. No. It was getting warm.

She fumbled around in her robes and held on to her wand. The water around her turned icy cold. It felt so good. There were fingers running through her hair now and a cup touching her lips. It wasn't blood but it tasted almost as good. Just water. Why did it taste so good? She hadn't had water in almost eight years. Why did this taste so fucking good? Lips touched her forehead again.

"Hermione…baby please look at me. Hermione, open your eyes, please sweetheart…"

She slowly opened her eyes and met Ginny's.

"What do you need, love? Tell me what you need."

"I don't know…"

"Do you know what's happening?"

"No…"

It had been almost an hour since it all started. She was still in the freezing cold tub. Her skin was still burning. Ginny had gone for a moment to tell Harry, Ron and her parents. Luna sat close by watching carefully. Ginny came back.

"No one knows what's happening. We just…I guess we just wait…I don't know," the redhead said. She pulled a chair up to the tub and sat down.

"Make it stop…" Hermione begged. "Please Ginny…make it stop."

"Listen to me, Hermione. I love you…you're going to be okay. We'll figure this out okay? I promise. I'm not going to lose you. Whatever this is we're going to get through it, do you understand me?"

Hermione nodded. Slender fingers through her hair again. Ow. Pain. Lots of pain. It was…where was it? Her mouth…fuck!

"Luna…" Ginny stood up and looked on in horror.

There was blood pouring out of her mouth. She screamed again. The taste was horrible. She submerged herself in the tub and opened her mouth. The water started turning pink. There was still pain. She stayed submerged until two hands on her shoulders pulled her up.

"Are you trying to fucking drown yourself, Hermione?!" Ginny yelled.

"Bad taste…pain."

"It's blood…you…wait. Open your mouth."

Her jaw hurt when she did but she opened. The bleeding had slowed. There was a shriek followed by footsteps. She heard more voices as Ginny pulled Harry and Ron into the bathroom. Hermione moved to cover herself only to remember she still had on clothes.

"Look at her, Harry. Look at her and tell me something isn't happening."

She felt Harry's hand on her jaw, keeping her mouth open.

"What…I don't get it…she…" Harry backed away.

What was everyone so amazed by? What the hell was so goddamn interesting about her mouth other than the fact that it was inexplicably bleeding? Okay so she had fangs…wait…where the fuck were the fangs? She ran her tongue across her teeth. There was nothing sharp and pointy protruding…She brought her fingers to her mouth. Nothing. It was…normal…

"What the hell is happening to me?!" she shrieked.

"Luna," Harry said. "Do you know of anyone at St. Mungo's we can trust to look at her? Anyone at all?"

Ginny sat by the side of the bathtub for two hours more while Luna went to St. Mungo's to find a colleague she had worked with when the vampires had started attacking. Hermione shivered. She was cold.

"I want to get out…" she groaned.

Ginny let the water out of the tub and a cast a quick drying charm over her.

"Warm…" Hermione whispered. Warm. The first time she'd felt warm all over in…since it happened. It wasn't burning. It wasn't pain. It was warm. An arm wrapped around her waist and another under her knees.

Ginny lifted her out of the tub and carried her to the bed.

She felt weak. She couldn't move. She didn't want to move. Sleep. She just wanted to sleep…

Luna arrived with a Healer just minutes after Ginny got Hermione settled into the bed. Everyone stood nervously around the bed as the woman they had known in school as Cho Chang looked over Hermione, who was now barely responsive.

"I don't understand why you brought me here. Hermione seems perfectly fine other than being rather weak and a little pale. No doubt from the ice bath you gave her when her fever spiked. I'm sure it's just a flu or something."

"Cho, she was a vampire five hours ago," Ron said. "Are you seriously telling us that she's not?"

"A…a what? Sh-she…she has no signs! I've seen vampires at St. Mungo's. Hermione isn't one of them!"

"That's…impossible," Ginny gasped. "Cho, I swear to you, a few hours ago Hermione had fangs…she drank blood…her skin was pasty and her eyes were black."

"Are you sure?"

"Cho! All of us have seen vampires, we know them. Hermione was a fucking vampire!"

"I-I…I don't know…I've never heard…There's never been a case…"

"Never as in not while you've been working or never as in…Hermione's the first?"

"She's the first. Trust me, if there were a case of a vampire turning human there would be hundreds of books on it."

"What do we do?" Harry asked.

"I'm not an expert in the law…but right now you should wait and see what happens I think. This could just be temporary. If anything changes you should come find me immediately, okay?"

There was a collective nod. Luna escorted Cho out and Ginny sat on the bed next to Hermione. She ran her fingers through the brunette's hair that had started gaining life and was almost as shiny as it was the day she left her and Ginny's house the last time.

"Ginny…" Harry said. "Don't…don't get your hopes up, okay?"

Ginny nodded. There was a knock at the door. It was Arthur. Rose was awake. Ginny checked her watch. It was seven-thirty. She left Hermione's side and took Rose down to the kitchen for breakfast.


	18. Chapter 18

**-Chapter 18: First Turning-**

"Grandad told me you didn't sleep last night, Mum. How come? Did you have more bad dreams?"

Ginny sighed and sipped her coffee. "I had some things to deal with, Rosie. It was a really long night for everyone. Eat your oatmeal, please."

"What happened?"

"The vampire came back, okay?"

"Why did it come back?"

"Gods…uh…it got lonely. It didn't like living alone."

"Oh. Can I see it now?"

"Well…Rosie…it uh…it's kind of sick."

"Oh." Rose hung her head and poked at her oatmeal.

"Sweetie…please don't be upset. Things are just very, very complicated right now."

Rose dropped her spoon in her bowl and pushed it away. She shoved her chair back and got up from the table. She didn't look at Ginny and instead just stormed up the stairs.

"Can I make a suggestion, dear?" Molly said. She sat down across from Ginny and took her daughter's hand.

"I'm open to anything, Mum."

"Your daughter is brilliant, Ginevra. She can only accept so many vague answers and that's all she has been getting since she was born. I'm not saying go up there and tell her your entire history, even a girl as bright as her won't understand most of it. I do suggest being open with her about what's happening with Hermione, though. If Rose has it her way, whether Hermione stays as she is or changes back, they will meet. You don't have to tell her who it is but I think she would appreciate it if you let her in a little bit."

Ginny nodded. "I should probably do that before she figures out how to pick the locks upstairs."

"It wouldn't surprise me if she already knew how. Do you forget that she's rather fond of George and they have spent quite a bit of time together?"

"That scares me a little, Mum." Ginny smiled. "Thanks for that advice."

Ginny went up the stairs and looked into the room on the second floor. Rose was sitting in the middle of her small bed that was in the corner turning through the pages of a book.

"Rosie," Ginny said. "Can we talk?"

The young girl glanced up then back down to her book. Ginny stepped in the room. She grabbed the desk chair and sat it next to Rose's bed.

"You want to tell me what's wrong?"

"Why should I?" Rose half-yelled. She snapped her neck up and glared at Ginny. "You never want to tell me anything so why should I tell you anything?"

Ginny wasn't entirely sure how to respond. Rose had always been so calm and timid.

"Rose…I…"

"I'm not stupid, Mum!"

"I never said you were, Rosie…"

"You don't think I'm smart enough to know about the vampire! You think I don't know anything!"

"Rose that is not why I haven't talked to you about it."

"Is it 'cause you think I'm too little? I'm not a baby!"

"You're right, you're not a baby. But there are some things, Rose, that you're not ready to know. Not even some adults are ready to know them, okay? Now, if you want to calm down a little I will tell you some of it. Can you do that?"

Rose crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her mother.

"Okay. The vampire came back last night, like I told you. Then something…something happened that's never, ever happened before and it was very, very scary for a while. We think the vampire might not be a vampire anymore."

"You mean it turned into something else?"

"We think it might be like us."

"Why?"

"We don't know why it happened."

Rose looked back down at her book and started turning the pages again.

"Can I ask what you're reading?"

"I found it in the desk. There's a chapter about vampires."

"Uh…Rosie, I think you should've asked…"

"I've already read it. It's not scary."

"Okay then. Is there anything you want to ask me? I know you probably know more than I'm giving you credit for."

"No."

"Are you still upset with me?"

Rose shrugged her shoulders.

"Hey, look at me." Ginny put a hand under Rose's chin and tilted her head up. "I'm really trying here, okay? You've been more than patient and wonderful your entire life and it's okay if you get angry sometimes. Don't hold it all in, it's not good for you. I have a feeling that's something you picked up from me but we're going to work on that, the both of us."

Rose nodded and leapt forward. She wrapped her arms around Ginny's neck and held on.

"Are you happy, Mum?"

"I'm trying."

"Oh. Are you sad?"

"I'm just really tired."

"If you want to take a nap you can. I'll be quiet, I promise."

Ginny smiled. "Thank you sweetie. I don't have time to take a nap right now though. I would like it if you went downstairs and finished your breakfast though."

Rose nodded and pulled away from Ginny. Ginny walked her out to the landing and Rose went down the stairs while Ginny went up. Ginny went to her bedroom. Hermione was still asleep. Her skin was showing more color. Ginny sat down on the bed and ran her fingers through the thick brown hair that was scattered over the pillows.

"Rose has most definitely inherited your mind, Hermione. I think she's also picked up the Weasley temper…I'm fairly certain that's a lethal combination. You had better come out of this because without you I don't have a fighting chance." Ginny smiled and kissed Hermione's forehead.

……………

Two days passed. She woke up. She was hungry. But not for blood. Food. She wanted real food. She moved to get out of bed but felt something stir next to her. The faint glow from the lamp on the bedside cabinet showed a mess of red hair spread out across the pillow mixing with her own. There was a freckled arm holding tight around her waist, a nose nuzzled into her neck, and an almost bare leg in between hers. Just like it had been that morning. The morning before everything changed. It was exactly like this except that Ginny's bare, swollen stomach had been pushing against her and she could feel the baby moving.

……………

"_Love, come on, we can't stay in bed all day."_

"_Mmmm why not? Mum said baby and me need rest and I don't feel like putting clothes on."_

"_You know you're going to have to wear something more than a sport bra and knickers to sleep in when the baby gets old enough to come in here and crawl into bed with us whenever it gets scared, right?"_

"_We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Please just stay here a little bit longer, Diagon Alley will wait for us. It's less crowded at night anyways."_

"_Fine, just a little while longer though. We've really got to get you some new shirts for work, you're about to bust out of the old ones."_

"_Why not just put an expanding charm on the old ones? Works for cars and handbags, why not my robes?"_

"_Ask Luna, I'm sure there's some sort of conspiracy against pregnant women and expanding charms on clothing."_

"_You're so helpful, Hermione."_

"_You love me."_

"_Forever and always, baby. Forever and always."_

_It was the twenty-sixth of May. The pair ventured into Diagon Alley. They went into Madam Malkin's. She recognized them now, Ginny had been in several times already to get her things tailored to keep up with her growing stomach. Ginny was getting measured for her new shirts, Hermione was awe-ing over the baby clothes._

"_Ow!" Ginny held on to her stomach. "Hermione, would you please try to convince our child that my ribcage is not a gnome, it does not need to be kicked!"_

_The Madam chuckled. Hermione smiled and put down the pale yellow outfit she'd been looking at. She walked over to Ginny when the Madam finished measuring her._

"_When does the apothecary close, Madam?" Hermione asked while rubbing Ginny's stomach._

"_Same as me, dear. If you need anything you should go now while I work on getting her Ministry robes re-fitted."_

"_Back in a little bit, okay love?"_

"_Okay. Hurry though, you know I'm horrible at picking out colors."_

_Hermione ventured down the street. She was getting ready to step into the apothecary when the patrons of the alley started panicking. Cloaked figures were pushing through the crowd, grabbing onto people and then disappearing. Hermione turned and started running back to Madam Malkin's. Just as she saw Ginny look out the door to see what the commotion was she felt cold, thick fingers wrap around her arm and with a crack she had landed in the middle of a forest. She searched for her wand. A pain worse than anything she'd ever experienced, Cruciatus curse included, shot through her neck and coursed through her body. She screamed as the burning continued for what seemed like an eternity. Her fingers gripped around her wand. Everything started going hazy. She felt cold. So cold. She raised her arm and muttered the incantation. The thing on top of her flew through the air and landed with a crash on the forest floor. She curled up in a ball and passed out._

_When she awoke it was still dark. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep or even if it was daytime. The trees were too thick to tell. She was sore. Then it started again. The burning in her head. Sharp pain in her mouth. She screamed. It lasted for an hour at least. When it was finished she passed out again. _

_When she woke again she was hungry. This wasn't a normal hungry. She wanted blood. She couldn't though…she couldn't be….she wasn't…no. This couldn't be happening. She got up and started running. She ran. She wasn't sure what she was running away from but she had to. She ran until she saw a shack. The windows were was dark. There was no smoke from the chimney. She broke down the door and scoured the house. She found a mirror. She looked into it. There was nothing in it. Her reflection was gone. She looked through the rest of the shack. She had to do something…she just didn't know what._

……………

Hermione ran her fingers through Ginny's hair and the redhead moaned.

"Ginny…wake up…"

"Too early, 'Mione."

"Please…Ginny please…"

Ginny roused and sat bolt upright. She looked at Hermione. Her skin was normal. Her eyes were chocolate brown. Her hair was bushy. Ginny sighed in relief.

"Don't scare me like that! I thought…"

"All I did was wake you up."

"Well yeah but…you sounded kind of urgent."

"I see old habits never die." Hermione trailed her fingers down from Ginny's neck over her chest and the cotton material of the gray elastic bra and then down her bare flat stomach to the waistband of the redhead's black cotton briefs.

"It's comfortable. If Rose is in my room I've got a t-shirt and either shorts or sweatpants I put on."

"Has she been asking questions?"

"Yeah. She knows you're back. She still doesn't know who you are, of course."

"Ginny…if…if this sticks…if I don't turn back…"

"Then you have no choice. I'm telling her and she's meeting you. Even if you do turn back, if you're how you were before, she'll still be determined to meet you. Really, you don't have a choice either way."

"Okay."

Ginny lay back down and the two curled into each other, holding on, never wanting to let go.

"What can I get for you love?" the redhead asked, combing her fingers through Hermione's hair.

"Scrambled eggs…bacon…toast…anything. I don't care what. As long as it's on a plate and not red I don't really care."

"I'll see what I can do." Ginny leaned in and touched her lips to Hermione's. They were warm.


	19. Chapter 19

**-Chapter 19: Photo Album-**

It had been a week. Ginny unblocked the windows. Sunlight poured in the room and Hermione smiled. She walked to the window and looked out. The brightness hurt her eyes at first but they quickly adjusted. Ginny wrapped her arms around the brunette from behind and settled her chin on Hermione's shoulder.

"Feel good, 'Mione?"

"You have no idea."

"Maybe later on we'll try to get you outside, okay?"

Hermione nodded and leaned back against the redhead.

"Ginny…"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

There was a knock at the door. It was Molly with a lunch tray. Ginny headed downstairs to join everyone else for lunch. Hermione sat at the desk and Molly set the tray in front of her.

"How are you feeling, dear?"

"Good, thank you. Lunch looks wonderful as always."

Molly smiled and patted Hermione on the head.

"Molly can…can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Ginny…she said she wasn't around much when Rose was little…"

"She was working quite a bit. She'd do anything and everything she could at the Ministry."

"Can you tell me about Rose, then? Ginny knows what she's like now…but there are other things. Like…when she took her first steps or spoke her first words…"

Molly smiled. "She was early for absolutely everything. She started walking before she was even a year old. Her first full word was 'fantastic'. She was reading by her third birthday. Your parents were in awe at how she hit her milestones around the same time you had hit all of yours."

"My parents…I…I should go see them. Or at least have someone send them a letter…"

"Ron's been keeping them updated, dear."

"Can you tell him I'd like to see them? Tomorrow perhaps? I don't know how much time I'm going to have…I want to see them as soon as I can just in case."

Molly nodded. "I'll let him know."

Hermione waited nervously in the sitting room the next afternoon. Her parents would be there any minute. Ginny had taken Rose to the park. The obnoxiously loud doorbell rang and Hermione heard Harry answer the door and lead her parents in. Hermione met them in the sitting room doorway.

"Mum…Dad…I…" before she could say anything else, Hermione's father grabbed onto her and pulled her in.

"My baby girl…"

"Dad I'm going to be thirty-one this year."

"It doesn't matter. You'll always be my baby girl."

Hermione let go of her father and he quickly wiped away the tears that had fallen. Hermione's mother pulled her in close and held on tight.

"Mum…I can't breathe."

Her mother only sobbed and held on tighter.

"Ginny said she would send a patronus when she and Rose got close to the house," Harry said. "You should have plenty of time. I'll be down in the kitchen if you need anything."

Hermione led her parents into the sitting room and they sat. Hermione's mother insisted she sit between them on the couch and the older woman set a thick photo album on Hermione's lap.

"Did you take a picture of Rose every single day, Mum?!"

"Close to it. Ginny wouldn't let me bring a camera when she delivered but it starts just a few hours after Rose was born."

"Of course she wouldn't…" Hermione smiled and shook her head. "She argued with me for hours about those pictures we had done before Rose was born."

Hermione opened the photo album and the first pictures were the ones she had just mentioned. There were four of them on the page and Hermione traced her fingers over the images. She turned the page and there were pictures of Ginny sitting in her bed at the Burrow holding an only hours old Rose.

"I'm glad you were there for her, Mum."

"She would rather it have been you."

Hermione turned through the pages. It seemed as though there were pictures for absolutely everything.

"Her first Christmas," Hermione's father pointed to one of the pictures. "Of course she had no idea what was going on, she was only five months old. She enjoyed the wrapping paper more than the presents."

Hermione laughed at a picture of Rose with a bow stuck to her head. She flipped through the album and stopped at Rose's first birthday. The entire Weasley clan was there plus Harry and Luna and a few others from Hogwarts.

"Why isn't Ginny in any of these, Mum?" Hermione asked as she looked closely at the pictures.

"She wasn't…she was there but…she was still dealing with your disappearance. Then seeing all of those people from school, it really hit her. She spent most of the time in the kitchen or up in her bedroom. Here," she turned the page, "there, there's a few of her and Rose opening presents."

Hermione traced her fingers over the pictures of Ginny and Rose. Ginny looked genuinely happy in a few of them, laughing as Rose held up a doll and opened up some books.

"Let me guess," Hermione said, pointing to the books, "from you guys? Muggle fairytales?"

"What else?" Hermione's mother smiled.

"I already have my own library, she doesn't need one, too!"

"Too late, dear. You should see her room at the Burrow, she already has an entire bookshelf full. She can't even reach the top shelf on her own but every single one is packed."

Hermione shook her head. "And you brought her another one today, didn't you?"

Hermione's mother pulled a wrapped, rectangular package out of her bag.

"You're spoiling her, you know!"

"Of course we are!" her father laughed. "She's our grand-daughter, that's our job."

They were halfway through the photo album when a silvery-blue horse galloped through the sitting room.

"You keep that with you, Hermione," her father said when she started to hand him the photo album. "And you tell Ginny next time you have a chance to get out that I want to see you in our office. Eight years is too long to go without a check-up! Would've liked to have taken x-rays before though…that would have been interesting to see."

"Only you would be worried about my teeth after not having seen me for eight years, Dad."

"Your mother and I didn't go to dentistry school to have our daughter's teeth go bad! Rose is due for a check-up as well now that I think about it."

"Really, honey, I think Hermione's teeth are the least of our worries right now."

"Thank you, Mum. I better get back upstairs. I promise we'll come by next time we get out, okay Dad?"

Hermione hugged her parents tight and told them she loved them. She heard the front door open and Ginny and Rose come in just as she hit the first floor landing. She listened as she heard Rose squeal and greet her parents.

"You guys are spoiling her, you know!" she heard Ginny say. "I'm going to have to buy her a new bookshelf."

"Of course we are, Ginny!"

Hermione smiled. She listened to the tearing of the gift wrap and excited "thank you"s from Rose.

"Rosie you stay here for a little bit, okay?"

"Okay Mum!"

Hermione waited on the landing and watched Ginny come up the stairs. She met the redhead by wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her in for a kiss.

"Your parents are spoiling her, Hermione."

"I know, I told them the same thing when I saw Mum had a book for her. They gave me this," Hermione said. She showed Ginny the thick photo album. "We got about halfway through it before your patronus came in."

"I tried to keep her as long as I could but she was getting restless at the park so we went to Diagon Alley and saw George and went to the Quidditch store and the book store, of course. She saw a kitten in the window of the Magical Menagerie and begged me to get it for her. I told her we'd see when we got everything moved back to the Burrow."

"Well that gives me an idea for an ice breaking gift."

"You mean…you…you'd like to…"

"Not yet. I want to wait and see. I…I don't think…I feel…human. I don't want anything to do with blood or anything. My senses aren't as sharp. I just feel normal."

"Whenever you're ready, love. I'm not going to push you…at least not yet." Ginny winked and smiled before giving Hermione a quick kiss. The two held each other close and swayed on the landing, listening to Rose chatter away downstairs.

"So...this might be an awkward question right now but…well…" Hermione blushed. "I mean…we…well…you know. It's uh…"

"Hermione Granger at a loss for words? Someone alert _The Prophet_! First she turns from vampire to human and now she can't find the words to ask me if we can have sex or not!"

"Ginny!" Hermione squealed.

"I know that's what you wanted to ask me so don't even pretend otherwise, love."

"Well…okay, yes. That was my question."

"The question isn't whether or not we can, it's when. I haven't really wanted to push it since you were pretty exhausted for a while. But since you're the one that has brought it up, good luck keeping my hands off you."

Hermione put the photo album on the floor and wrapped her arms around Ginny's waist and pulled the redhead's hips into her own. Her hands found their way to Ginny's back pockets. Ginny put one hand on the back of Hermione's head and pulled her in. Their lips crashed together. Hermione pushed her tongue into Ginny's mouth and pulled her hips in even harder. She stumbled back into a wall and Ginny started kissing down her neck.

"Um…Gin…as…as much as I'm really, _really_ enjoying this…our daughter is downstairs with my parents…and from what you've told me…if she really is like the both of us…she's going to come looking for you and oh gods…"

One of Ginny's hands had made its way up Hermione's shirt and had grabbed on to her breast.

"You sure you want me to stop, baby?"

"Well…I was thinking…maybe we should go up– oh gods…Gin…"

Ginny's hand had now found its way under Hermione's bra.

"We could go into Ron's room," Ginny whispered. Her fingertips traced over the mound of flesh she was caressing.

"I'm not having sex…in your brother's room…"

"We did at the Burrow."

"That didn't count; I was drunk from the New Year's party."

"We've had drunk sex more than just that time and it counted."

"Not…not the point."

Ginny pulled her hand out and smiled. She kissed back up to Hermione's ear and gave her lobe a gentle bite. "Tonight?"

Hermione moaned.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Ginny left a lingering kiss on Hermione's lips before heading back down the stairs. Hermione picked up the photo album and went up to her room for a cold shower.


	20. Chapter 20

Guess what?! Sex. Yup. Enjoy it.

* * *

**-Chapter 20: First Time-**

Ginny slipped into bed facing Hermione and wrapped an arm around the brunette's waist. The lanterns on the wall were glowing dimly.

"Would it be strange if I said I was nervous?" Hermione said. She weaved her fingers through Ginny's hair.

"Not really. Keep in mind that it's my first time since our last time, too."

Hermione smiled. "You remember our very first time?"

Ginny grinned. "I'm still wondering how we had enough energy."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"I guess we figured there was no better way to celebrate the fall of Voldemort than to have sex in my dormitory. It was good though."

"Oh, no doubt. Awkward, but good."

"Well if someone hadn't developed a sudden case of shyness…"

"It counterbalanced you stripping down before we even got into bed."

Ginny sighed and smiled. "I was…eager. After…after Bellatrix shot that killing curse at me and I saw so many people die…it just seemed like what was right. We were so close to death…all I wanted at that point was to love you in every way I could think of."

"You're so amazing, Ginny."

Ginny blushed. "So…"

"So…" Hermione smiled. She waved her hand and the lights in the room extinguished. Ginny waved hers and they came back up to a dim glow.

"I want to see you, 'Mione…"

Hermione pulled Ginny in close to her and pressed her lips against the redhead's. She felt Ginny smile.

Ginny pulled Hermione on top of her and pulled Hermione's shirt off.

"So beautiful…" Ginny moaned before her lips were again occupied with Hermione's.

The redhead slipped her fingers into Hermione's pajama bottoms and underwear and slid them down off her hips. Hermione kicked them to the floor. Ginny sat up and Hermione sat up on her knees. She edged her fingers underneath the tight fabric of Ginny's bra and tugged it off. Ginny leaned forward and kissed all over Hermione's chest. Her arms roamed all over the bare torso in front of her. Hermione held on to Ginny's shoulders and the redhead took one of Hermione's breasts in her hand, the other in her mouth. Hermione's hands traveled down Ginny's back. She raked her fingernails over the soft skin. Ginny moaned and gripped Hermione's nipple in her teeth. Hermione pushed her back down on the bed and pulled at the blue cotton briefs on Ginny's hips, the last article of clothing separating them. Ginny lifted her hips off the bed just long enough for Hermione to practically tear the fabric off of her.

Hermione settled her hips in between Ginny's legs and laid her full weight on top of the redhead. Every inch of skin on their torsos pushed together. Ginny wrapped her arms around Hermione's back and trailed her fingers up the woman's spine Hermione blinked back a few tears. Ginny smiled.

"You're going to cry already, love? If I recall, you usually at least waited until we were done…"

"Once. I cried _one time_!...okay maybe twice…"

"Four times, actually."

"If you even think of reminding me of all of them right now you're sleeping on the floor and you'll get to wait even longer for this…" Hermione ground her hips hard into Ginny.

"Oh…gods…'Mione…"

Hermione's lips again captured Ginny's and she opened her mouth allowing Ginny's tongue plenty of access. Ginny dug her nails into Hermione's back as the woman continued grinding in to her. She couldn't take it anymore. One hand forced its way between the bodies and down between Hermione's legs. The other hand rested on the small of Hermione's back. Hermione raised her hips and Ginny slipped one finger around the swollen bundle of nerves resting at the top of the wet folds. She pushed against the bud and Hermione moaned. She broke the kiss and buried her head into Ginny's neck. The redhead continued alternating between circling the bud and pressing against it.

"Ginny…Ginny…oh gods…"

Ginny stopped moving her fingers and slid them lower. Hermione groaned. Ginny tried to roll them over so she could be on top but Hermione stayed still.

"You know I like it on top…" Hermione groaned.

"Stubborn…" Ginny pushed on one of Hermione's thighs trying to spread the woman's legs a bit. Hermione took the hint and shifted her legs to where she was now straddling the hips of the witch beneath her.

Ginny kissed Hermione's shoulder and brushed her fingers against Hermione's clit before moving them down through the folds. She cautiously dipped two of them into Hermione's opening and the brunette moaned in approval. She pushed them in deep. Hermione arched her back and held her head up and let out a loud moan. Ginny smiled. She pulled her fingers out a little and Hermione's pushed her hips back onto them. Ginny thrust deep and slow, Hermione moaned into Ginny's freckled neck.

"Ginny…oh gods…Ginny…baby…"

Ginny curled her fingers with the next thrust, pushing against Hermione's g-spot. The brunette screamed into the pillow under Ginny's head and bucked her hips.

"Come for me, 'Mione…"

Hermione moaned into the pillow again and bucked her hips to match Ginny's thrusting. Ginny's hand that was on Hermione's back moved up and cupped Hermione's jaw and pulled her in for a kiss. Hermione pressed her lips hard against Ginny's. She forced her tongue into the redhead's mouth and swirled the warm cavity. She let out another moan into Ginny's mouth when the redhead again pushed against her g-spot. Ginny's thumb slipped over her clit and Hermione's eyes rolled back in her head. She arched her back and threw her head back. Her toes curled and she gripped the sheets. Adrenaline coursed through her veins and her entire body shook.

Ginny held on to Hermione's head and watched with a smile. She thrust her fingers in hard and deep and twisted them as she felt the muscles contract around them.

"Ginny! Oh fuck…oh gods…Ginny…" Hermione collapsed on top of the redhead. Ginny pulled her hand out from between the two of them and wrapped her arms around Hermione's back and held on to the still shaking brunette. She heard Hermione let out a quiet sob into the pillow.

"Shhhh love, it's okay. I'm here."

"I love you Ginny…I love you…"

"I love you too 'Mione."

Hermione started kissing Ginny's shoulder and up to her neck. She lifted herself and looked down into Ginny's eyes. A tear slipped out and dropped onto Ginny's cheek and the redhead shook her head and smiled. Hermione kissed Ginny's cheek. She gently dragged her fingernails down Ginny's side and to her hip. She held on to it and pushed herself up and slipped one leg in between Ginny's.

Hermione touched her forehead to Ginny's and moved her hand from Ginny's hip to inside of her thigh. She traced slow, light circles on soft flesh but stopped just before she hit the spot Ginny needed her the most.

"Tease…"

"Just enjoying the moment."

Hermione slipped one finger into Ginny's folds and ran it the length between her dripping wet slit and swollen clit.

"Mmmm nice and wet."

"For you."

Hermione took a nip at Ginny's bottom lip and the redhead moaned. She rubbed the engorged bud with her fingers and Ginny arched her back.

"'Mione…"

Hermione kissed down Ginny's chest and to her breasts. She flicked her tongue over the left nipple and took it in her mouth. Her fingers slipped away from Ginny's clit and down. She wasted no time and plunged two fingers into the redhead. Ginny screamed. Hermione gently bit down on her nipple. She thrust her fingers in deeper and Ginny let out a deep moan. Hermione switched to Ginny's other breast and kissed all around the nipple before nipping it with her teeth. She thrust her fingers in fast and hard. Ginny's hips came off the bed to match Hermione's rhythm.

"Oh…gods…oh…Hermione…"

Ginny held on to a handful of Hermione's hair and tugged her back up to eye level and kissed her. Hermione slowed her thrusts and Ginny whimpered against her lips. Hermione pushed another finger in with the other two and Ginny bit her bottom lip and arched her back. Her eyes closed and she groaned. Hermione pushed against her g-spot and Ginny's eyes popped open and she screamed. Hermione pulled her fingers out and thrust them all in again eliciting another scream from Ginny. She started thrusting faster. Ginny dug her fingernails into Hermione's back and continued yelling

"Merlin's…fucking…beard! Don't…stop…oh god!"

Hermione pushed her thumb against Ginny's clit and Ginny arched her back further, pushing her hips harder onto Hermione's fingers that were still thrusting. Hermione knew exactly what would send Ginny over the edge but she refrained from curing her fingers onto Ginny's g-spot again. Ginny continued moaning and yelling with each thrust.

"'Mione…please…oh gods…"

"What do you want?"

"Come…make me come…please…please oh gods!"

Hermione smiled. She thrust her fingers in deep and curled them as she pulled out. Ginny yelled words that weren't even close to coherent. Her body shook and her fingernails dug deep into Hermione's back and the brunette clenched her jaw and groaned. She pushed in again as Ginny's walls pulsated around her fingers. Ginny let out one last cry of pleasure before she relaxed her grip on Hermione and her back finally touched the bed again.

Hermione rolled over next to her and draped an arm across Ginny's stomach. Ginny's muscles burned too much to move. She could only turn her head and look into Hermione's dark brown eyes. She felt her eyes start stinging and she blinked back the tears. Hermione smiled and a few of her own tears fell. Ginny lost her battle and the salty water started dripping down the bridge of her nose.

"No more giving me grief for crying," Hermione said. She used her thumb to wipe away the tear on Ginny's freckled nose.

"We'll see." Ginny smiled.

Ginny wasn't aware she had fallen asleep until soft kisses on her neck roused her. The warm body next to her was stirring and she heard a giggle then another kiss.

"Wake up, sleepyhead."

Ginny groaned. "What time is it?"

"I have no idea."

"Well is it at least daylight?"

"Nope."

"Then why are you awake?"

"Because I wanted to do this…"

Hermione pushed her hand between Ginny's legs and slipped two fingers inside of the redhead. Ginny gasped and opened her eyes.

"Good…reason…"

"Thought you would agree."

Hermione kissed Ginny's neck again and continued pushing her fingers in and out of her. Ginny moaned. Hermione started kissing down Ginny's chest and stopped momentarily to flick her tongue over Ginny's already hard nipple. She kissed down Ginny's flat stomach and pulled her fingers out. Ginny whimpered. Hermione then settled herself between the redhead's legs and kissed the inside of each of Ginny's thighs. Ginny ran her fingers through Hermione's hair and held on to her head. Hermione pushed her fingers back in and pushed her tongue against Ginny's clit.

"Oh gods…" Ginny writhed at the sensation of Hermione's tongue which was now dragging over her clit.

She pushed her hips up trying to get herself closer to the woman's mouth. Hermione repeatedly flicked her tongue over the bud and gently gripped it with her teeth. She pulled her fingers out once again and again, Ginny whimpered. Hermione let the tip of her tongue trail from its place at the top of the folds town to Ginny's slit. She teased the opening and Ginny raised her hips off the bed. Hermione thrust her tongue in and Ginny let out a loud moan. Hermione's fingers started rubbing Ginny's clit in circles as her tongue darted in and out.

"Oh my god…Hermione…I'm…I'm gonna…oh gods…"

Hermione rubbed faster and pushed her tongue in as deep as she could. Ginny's juices poured over her tongue into her mouth and she eagerly accepted them. Ginny gripped onto the handful of Hermione's hair and her other gripped the bedsheets. She screamed Hermione's name one last time as the last convulsion of pleasure raged through her. She whimpered and relaxed onto the bed. Hermione moved up back beside her and gave the redhead a deep kiss. She tasted herself on Hermione's tongue which made her want the brunette even more. Hermione broke the kiss and smiled.

"You mad that I woke you up, baby?"

"Yes…and for that you don't get to be on top this time."

"What are you going to do about it, hmmm?"

Ginny rolled over on top of Hermione and pinned her to the bed. Hermione wrapped her arms around Ginny's back and rolled them back over.

"You're asking for trouble, you know?"

"I dare you." Hermione smirked. Ginny reached over to the bedside cabinet and grabbed her wand. She quickly flipped Hermione over to her back and pinned the brunette's wrists above her head and bound them to the headboard.

"Ginny!"

"You asked for it." Ginny gave a wicked smile and tossed her wand back on the cabinet.

"You're evil."

"You love me."

Ginny kissed Hermione's neck and slowly dragged her fingertips down her stomach. Hermione squirmed and tugged at her bindings. Ginny's fingers inched further down Hermione's abdomen and the brunette spread her legs in anticipation. Ginny made circles around Hermione's navel and Hermione whimpered. Ginny's tongue swirled one of Hermione's nipples and then she gently bit down on it and sucked on it.

"Ginny…"

"Yes, love? Is something the matter?"

"You know…what I want…"

"I don't think I do."

Hermione growled. Ginny smirked and inched her fingers lower.

"Ginny," Hermione whined.

"Hmmm?" Ginny kissed Hermione's other nipple.

"I…want you…inside me…please baby…please…"

"Well why didn't you say so?"

Ginny's fingers disappeared from Hermione's torso and Hermione groaned but was cut off when Ginny's lips pressed against her own and two fingers thrust deep inside her. Hermione broke the kiss and threw her head back and moaned. Ginny kissed down her neck and chest. She pulled her fingers out and touched them to Hermione's lips. The brunette took one in her mouth and sucked it clean, then the other. Ginny's lips followed for a quick kiss before the redhead ducked down between Hermione's legs.

She ran her tongue along the length of Hermione's folds and flicked it at her opening. She pushed it in slow and Hermione moaned again. Her hips bucked upwards and Ginny pushed her tongue in deeper. She ran her thumb over Hermione's clit then started gently pulsating against it.

"Oh gods…Ginny…oh fuck…fuck!"

Hermione pulled at her bindings, her wrists would be bruised in the morning, she was sure of it. She writhed and bucked at the sensations Ginny was sending through her. Her toes curled and her back arched as she felt the orgasm start in her low abdomen then shoot through her body. Ginny kept pushing her tongue and rubbing Hermione's clit. Hermione cried out Ginny's name over and over. When she finally collapsed she felt Ginny's tongue take one last lick over her clit before the redhead joined her at eye level.

Ginny touched her lips to Hermione's. Hermione opened her mouth, inviting Ginny's tongue so she could taste herself again.

"You gonna wake me up in the middle of the night again, 'Mione?"

"Every…single…night."

"Good." Ginny smirked. She reached for her wand and aimed it at Hermione's wrists and the bindings disappeared. Ginny kissed the bruises that were already showing up. The redhead settled herself on her side in the crook of Hermione's arm and draped her arm over the brunette's stomach. Hermione turned her head and looked at her lover.

"My Ginevra…" Hermione whispered.

Ginny nodded. "Forever and always."


	21. Chapter 21

**-Chapter 21: The Meeting-**

It was the second of June. Cho came back to check on Hermione.

"I've never seen someone more human in my entire life," she told the group that was gathered around the brunette's bed. She turned back to Hermione. "You're still a but underweight, Hermione. Make sure you're getting in three full meals a day, plenty of protein. Other than that…I mean obviously what happened…I still just don't know. Just keep a close watch is all I can say."

"Do you think she'll turn back?" Ron asked.

"I don't know. I've got to get going though. I promised my superior I'd pick up an extra shift since there's been a string of spattergroit going around."

"Thanks Cho," Harry said. "For everything."

She nodded and Luna walked her out.

"Arthur went to have a look at the Burrow the other day," Harry said after a few minutes of silence. "He said they didn't break in and no one's seen a trace of any of them around the village since then. I think it would be safe now, Gin, if all of you wanted to move back in after Bill finishes checking for charms and then putting up the protective spells."

Ginny sat back on the bed. She wrapped an arm around Hermione's waist and the brunette set her head on Ginny's shoulder. Everyone else left. Ginny turned to the brunette. Using her free hand she tilted Hermione's chin up and pulled her into a kiss. Hermione let out a quiet sob and a tear escaped.

"You know I thought after a few weeks of doing that again I wouldn't be that bad at it anymore."

"Y-you kn-know that's not w-why," Hermione sobbed.

"I know love, I know."

……………

Four more days. Still no change. Everyone stayed at Grimmauld Place. Hermione had cried every day when she woke up and Ginny was next to her.

"You're sure about this, Gin?" Ron asked while Ginny paced the floor in his room.

"Rose deserves this, Ron. She needs it. Hermione does, too."

"Okay well…Luna has her in your room."

Ginny nodded and headed up the flights of stairs from the first floor to the top landing. She stepped into her bedroom. Luna was sitting on the bed listening to Rose read her a book. The seven year old looked up and smiled at her mother, Ginny nodded at Luna and the blonde left the room. Ginny took her place on the bed.

"Rosie I need to ask you something and I need you to tell me the truth, okay?"

"Okay."

"You're too much like Hermione and me to not have listened outside of doors…I know we talked about the vampire changing and I've told you that it is still human and all of that. What I need to ask you is if you know anything else."

Rose nodded. "The other day when the Healer lady was here I heard her talking to Aunt Luna about it. I heard them say…I…I heard…"

"What did you hear, Rose?"

"She…she said her name…" Rose whispered. "I didn't tell you I heard…'cause I didn't think I was supposed to know."

"I guess I don't have much to tell you then."

"I don't understand though, Mum. You…you told me she was…"

"We thought she was. Everyone thought she was but she wasn't. She was a vampire and she was hiding because she didn't want to get hurt."

"So she's not a vampire anymore either?"

"No…and we still have no idea why."

"Well I thought about it and I think it's 'cause you love her. Uncle Harry always says that love can make anything happen."

"He's a very smart man. And you're a very smart girl."

There was a silence for a few minutes. Ginny stared at the floor. Rose looked through her book. Ginny knew Hermione was waiting nervously in the next room.

"Rosie…would…would you like to meet her?"

The little girl looked up from her book with what was quite possibly the biggest smile on her face that Ginny had ever seen. She nodded her head excitedly and hopped off the bed. Ginny stood up and took her hand. They walked to the door that connected to the other room and Ginny turned the handle.

Hermione wrung her hands nervously as she watched the door open. She took a deep breath. Not a damn thing. No blood. No sweat. Just…air. She smiled. The young brunette girl…her daughter…appeared in the doorway. She let go of Ginny's hand and walked slowly towards Hermione. The older brunette knelt down to eye level of the young almost mirror image before her. The girl stopped a few steps away from her.

"Hi," the young girl said with a smile.

"Hello." Hermione smiled. She looked up at Ginny who was leaning against the door frame, watching.

"What…what do I call you?" Rose asked curiously. She never took her eyes away from Hermione.

"I don't really know. What do you think?"

"Well…you're kind of my mum, too, right? Mum told me that they took a piece of you and put it in her and that's how come I'm here."

"That's right. So if you'd like to call me 'mum' I'd be okay with that."

"Do you write to Santa?"

Hermione arched her eyebrow at the random question and glanced up at Ginny who shrugged.

"I…sometimes."

"I asked him for Christmas to make Mum happy. I got a jumper and some licorice wands and a purple Pygmy Puff and a potions kit and some books. Gran told me that sometimes he can't give us all the stuff we want."

"Okay…"

"I think maybe he got it late."

"Rose," Ginny said as she walked over and put her hand on the young girl's shoulder. "Sweetie…what are you talking about?"

Rose turned to Ginny.

"In all the pictures you showed me when you're with her you're always smiling. When you smile that means you're happy. So…maybe Santa got the letter late and that's why she didn't come stay here 'til after Christmas. And then I think…I think 'cause you love her and you said she wasn't like all the others…I think that's why she changed. I think Santa knew if she came that it would happen and everyone would be happy."

"You've given this a lot of thought, haven't you?" Ginny said.

"I've had a lot of time on my hands."

Hermione laughed and Rose turned to her and smiled.

"I think it's a perfectly acceptable theory," Hermione said. Rose smiled even bigger.

"Perfectly acceptable!" Rose repeated.

"I told you she was smart," Ginny said when she and Hermione's eyes met.

"Well one thing is for sure…I'm writing a letter to Santa every year from now on," Hermione said.

She stood up and the three of them sat down on the bed. Ginny and Rose sat side by side and they faced Hermione. Rose talked about her favorite colors, animals, foods, and books. Hermione listened to every word. She let it soak in. She watched the girl's mannerisms. She sat exactly like Ginny did. She flailed her hands and arms about when she was excited, exactly like Ginny. She talked about Quidditch and going to see matches and how she knew Hermione didn't like to fly.

After two hours of non-stop talking Rose excused herself to use the loo. Hermione smiled when she looked at Ginny after the girl left the room. Ginny's left hand found Hermione's right and held on to it.

"Ginny she's…God she's beautiful. She…she's just amazing. She's so much like you, it's unbelievable."

"She's a lot like you, too, you know. She's smarter than me. One of the books I gave her for Christmas was _Hogwarts: A History_. Mum said she found an old copy of it one day and had been flipping through it."

Hermione's face lit up. "She's only seven! Well, almost eight, but still. I don't think I could have gotten through that book when I was her age."

"I don't think she actually read much of it, just looked through it. She'll look at anything with pages. But uh…I-I found your old copy and gave it to her. When I told her that it was yours she was so excited. I think she was more excited than when I got her an intermediate broomstick the year before."

"She didn't even know me though."

"She spent I don't know how much time going through the photo albums and asking questions. She knew that she was a part of you and I think seeing that other kids had two parents…it made her want to know you."

Rose returned and hopped back up onto the bed. Hermione smiled and ran her fingers through the young girl's thick hair. She shook her head and smiled.

"Mum says I'm like you. She said my hair is like yours 'cause it goes everywhere."

"It is. I couldn't get it to stay down, either. Except for a few times but that took too much time and too much hair potion."

Hermione pulled the tie out of her hair that was holding it back and shook her head. The dark brown locks spread out everywhere and Rose smiled.

"Are you gonna come to the Burrow with us when we leave?"

Hermione smiled. "I will if you would be okay with that."

Rose smiled and hopped up and wrapped her arms around Hermione's neck. Hermione's lower lip trembled when she wrapped her arms around the young girl and held her tight. Ginny reached forward and swept a tear away from Hermione's cheek.

Molly called everyone down for dinner. For the first time since she arrived Hermione had dinner down in the kitchen. Hermione held Rose's hand on the way down the stairs and Rose was still chattering away about things she'd done. Rose sat between the two women at the dinner table.

Everyone was talking about Luna's pregnancy and Rose tugged on Hermione's sleeve.

"Can I have a baby brother or sister?"

Ginny spit her water out across the table, spraying Ron in the face. She coughed and choked. Hermione bolted up out of her chair and rubbed Ginny's back. Everyone else was laughing hysterically.

"You okay, love?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah…uh…okay."

Hermione sat back down. Ron continued trying to dry himself off.

"Rose…sweetie…" Ginny said, "We're uh…"

"We'll see, okay Rosie?" Hermione said. "We have a lot of things to do before we can decide on that just yet. I promise we'll talk about it when things have settled down a little bit."

"Okay. I can handle that."

Ginny smiled. After dinner everyone settled into the sitting room to listen to a Quidditch match. Rose settled herself on the floor in front of the loveseat where Hermione and Ginny were snuggled up.

"I still can't believe she asked about a sibling," Ginny whispered.

"Oh I can. I used to ask my parents constantly. It's only natural, especially since Luna's expecting."

"Well you handled it beautifully."

"I just told her what I would've said to myself at that age. What about that kitten though?"

"I'm thinking birthday."

"Perfect."

Apparently something exciting happened in the Quidditch match because Rose squealed excitedly. She looked up at Ginny and Hermione who both smiled. Hermione kissed Ginny's cheek and the redhead blushed. Rose giggled.

"So…about us moving to the Burrow. Is this going to be a permanent thing?"

"Unless you'd rather move back into our house."


	22. Chapter 22

**-Chapter 22: Going Home-**

It was the fourteenth of June. Hermione and Ginny Apparated onto an overgrown lawn. The house in front of them looked a bit run-down but that would be remedied with cleaning charms and a bit of elbow grease.

"Why didn't you sell it?" Hermione asked. "You could've gotten a pretty good sum of money for it."

"I thought about it. I couldn't do it though. It just didn't feel right. I mean, your parents gave it to us as a wedding gift…It just didn't feel right to sell it."

They stepped inside the house. There was a thick coat of dust all over everything. Ginny lit the tip of her wand and they walked around. The furniture was covered with sheets. There were no pictures on the walls or books or small knick-knacks.

"With all of my books I am surprised you had any room at the Burrow for anything else."

"Thank goodness for shrinking charms."

They walked into the room they had intended to be a nursery. The walls were white, ready to be turned depending on what the baby had been. Of course the walls were never changed.

-*-*-*-*-*-

_It was July fifteenth. Ginny was lying on the couch in the sitting room at the Burrow, her mother was starting dinner and her father was at the kitchen table going over his papers from the Ministry._

"_Mum, what exactly did you put on my sandwich for lunch?" Ginny asked._

"_The usual dear, why?"_

"_I keep getting random pains in my stomach."_

"_And would these random pains happen to be coming about the exact length of time apart?"_

"_I don't know. Maybe. Ow! Dammit! Ow! Ow!" Ginny clutched her rounded stomach._

_Molly smiled and stopped what she was doing, Arthur put down his papers._

"_Let's get you upstairs to your room," Arthur said while Molly made a Floo call to Grimmauld Place._

_In a matter of minutes Luna was there. Harry had gone to pick up the Grangers to drive them to the Burrow. Arthur was cleaning the stairs where Ginny's water had broken. A loud yell, some swearing and then Molly scolding told Luna that Ginny was in her room and the blonde headed up the stairs._

_Five hours passed and Ginny lay in her bed while Luna dabbed her forehead with a cool cloth. There were more voices downstairs, Ginny's brothers and their wives. Hermione's mother sat in a chair at the edge of the bed._

"_Luna, tell all of them if they even think about coming in here I'll kill them!"_

"_They're staying downstairs, Ginny. Just relax. You don't want this baby born under stress."_

"_Easy for you to say, you're not the one about to have her damn – Ow! Ow! Mum! Ow! Dammit! This kid had better hurry up! Ow! Why…why did I agree to do this here…without pain relievers…ow! If Hermione were here I'd so yell at her for this…"_

"_I'm sure she can hear you, Gin. Molly! I think we're about ready!" Mrs. Granger called downstairs._

_The plump woman came shuffling in with blankets and towels._

"_Almost, not quite. I'd say within the hour though," Molly said after timing Ginny's contractions. _

"_God, can't you just like…_accio_ it out or something?! Ow!"_

_One hour and a lot of screaming and swearing later Ginny fell back against Luna who wiped the sweat and tears away from her face. The redhead listened to the cries of the newborn that her mother was tending to._

"_You did really good, Gin. Hermione would be so proud," Luna said.  
_

"_Mum…Mum I want to see…"_

_Molly walked over to Ginny with the bundle of blankets that contained the newborn and placed it in her arms._

"_Meet your daughter, dear. All ten fingers, all ten toes. Beautiful dark brown eyes."_

"_Remarkable…" Hermione's mother peered at the now calm baby. "She looks so much like Hermione after she was born."_

"_My baby girl…" Ginny whispered as she lightly touched the newborn's forehead with her fingertips. "Rosalind Jean. That's your name, you know? Your other mum insisted it be Shakespeare so that's what we decided on. Except your middle name…that's hers. Someday I'll tell you about her, my little Rose. Someday you'll know why you're here and just how incredible she was. Someday…"_

-*-*-*-*-*-

Ginny walked around the empty, white room.

"I wish you could've been there, 'Mione."

"You have no idea how much I wanted to be."

They left the room and went across the hallway.

"We've got a bit of work to do, it seems," Hermione said when they stepped into the master bedroom. The window was broken and had been boarded up, there was a hole in the wall just about the size of Ginny's fist.

"Last thing I did before I left. I Flooed to the Burrow and didn't come back," Ginny said, running her fingers over the hole. "Harry, Ron, and my parents packed up everything."

"It will be good as new when we're done."

~-~-~-~-~-~

It was the first of July. Hermione dug through the boxes of her clothes that were at the Burrow. She pulled out a pair of black trousers and a white dress shirt. She took them to Molly to be cleaned and then searched for a suitable pair of shoes.

"Nervous?" Ginny stood in the doorway watching Hermione go through a box of shoes.

"You have no idea."

"I'll be there with you, love. No one will hurt you."

"Has Harry said anything else to the Wizengamot?"

"No, all they know he is bringing in a special case that he wants to present that could possibly be the solution to the attacks."

Hermione sighed. "I'm not a solution, Ginny. We don't even know if it will work with anyone else. I could have some thing in my DNA or something that no one else has. Maybe it's because I'm a Muggle-born, I don't know."

"Which is why we need the Ministry to stop killing all of them off! If Harry can convince them to stop then we could seriously make an impact here."

"We still don't know for sure why I changed though..."

"Yes we do, Hermione. Rose…what she said makes sense. Think about how it happened. I told you I loved you and your head starts burning. I said it again and your fangs disappear. It…it makes sense."

"It…it does, I know. But like I've told you, it just seems…people aren't going to believe us."

"Tell that to Harry, Hermione. Remember what it did for him? He didn't die because of love. If he can get that through their heads then maybe we can make this stop."

Hermione found a sensible pair of black heels and dusted them off.

"I think we need to put an expansion charm on your closet, love. Going through these boxes is rather inconvenient."

"_Our_ closet." Ginny smiled. Hermione stuck her tongue out at the redhead and Ginny laughed. Hermione stood and was met with a kiss on the tip of her nose. "You look so adorable when you do that, 'Mione," Ginny said when the brunette crinkled up her nose.

"You look adorable anytime."

Ginny wrapped her arms around Hermione's waist and the brunette dropped her shoes to the floor and pulled Ginny in close. Ginny backed Hermione into a wall and slipped one leg in between Hermione's and pushed against her. Their lips found each others and Hermione ran her fingers through Ginny's hair. The redhead started kissing down Hermione's neck.

There was a giggle from the doorway. Ginny jumped back and turned bright red.

"Rosalind! I…I taught you how to knock!"

"The door was open." Rose grinned. Hermione giggled but quickly hushed when Ginny shot her a look. Hermione cleared her throat and smiled.

"What do you need sweetie?" Ginny asked.

"Gran said Mum's clothes are done."

"Thank you, Rose. Tell her I'll be down in a little bit to get them okay?"

The young girl smiled and nodded then took off down the staircase. Ginny shook her head.

"Well, Gin, I think it's pretty clear she got more than your temper and your flying skills. She definitely has picked up your sarcasm."

"Thank you for that."

"My point, exactly."

Ginny grumbled and Hermione picked up her shoes and they headed downstairs to the kitchen where Molly was setting out a plate of sandwiches. She smiled and shook her head at the two women and both of them blushed.

"Hermione dear, your dress clothes are hanging up out in the laundry room. Ginny, do you need yours ironed?"

"No, Mum. Thank you though. We need to get dressed and leave right after lunch. Harry wants us there by two so we have plenty of time to go over what will be said. The official session starts at three."

"Why can't I go?" Rose looked up at Ginny.

"I told you baby girl, you get to stay here and help Gran. I would much rather do that then go to some boring old meeting."

"Then you stay here and I'll go."

"You want to take this one, 'Mione?"

Hermione smiled. "I know you're a big girl, Rose and you want to do grown-up things but this meeting isn't something for you, okay? I promise you, when we get home we'll tell you what we can about it."

"But I really wanna go!"

"Rose, you can't go," Hermione said. "I'm sorry sweetie but this is just something we've got to do by ourselves."

Rose sighed and poked at her sandwich.

"We'll take you another time when we don't have to go to a meeting, okay?" Ginny said. "It will be more fun that way, promise."

Rose sighed again. "Okay. I won't let you forget."

"We won't forget."

Hermione and Ginny finished their lunches and dressed. They each gave Rose a hug and a kiss before departing to the Ministry.


	23. Chapter 23

Extra freaking long chapter. This was a bitch to write so if you hate it, lie and tell me you loved it, please. =P

* * *

**-Chapter 23: The Wizengamot-**

Hermione looked around the atrium nervously. Ginny slipped her arm into Hermione's and led her to the lift. They made their way to Harry's office and sat down in the scarlet armchairs in front of his desk.

"Weird…" Ginny said.

"Hmmm?"

"Well…usually when I was in here I was telling Harry about someone you'd killed."

Hermione's face drained of her color and she stared at Ginny.

"You okay, love? Hermione?"

"I can't do this, Ginny."

"What? Why not? Hermione, what's wrong?"

"I…they're going to kill me, Ginny. Oh…oh gods I can't believe I didn't think of this before. I can't go in there and tell them about this!"

"Hermione what the hell are you talking about? You just tell them that you turned!"

"And what about how I lived for seven years, Ginny? All those prisoners I killed. What am I supposed to tell them? That I was part of the attacks? Either way I am _screwed_, Ginny. They will ask me how I survived! I…what do I tell them? I either tell them I killed prisoners or I was part of a colony. The lot of them are going to think that I should have surrendered myself to be killed or offed myself."

"Hermione, please…don't talk like that. I'll protect you."

"You know I'm right, Ginny. I either admit to killing the prisoners or lie and tell them I was part of a colony. Either way I have a cell in Azkaban with my name on it."

"We won't let that happen to you. Harry will do anything to make sure you're safe. He's very well respected in the Ministry."

"I…I can't. I don't want to take that risk. Not with what I've been through already. How would you explain that to Rose? No…I'm leaving."

Hermione stood up and headed to the door just as Harry was walking in.

"Hey guys, glad you're here early!" he said.

"Harry, stop her!" Ginny yelled when Hermione slipped out the door.

Harry dashed out the door followed by Ginny. They caught Hermione quickly. She swore at her shoes. They dragged her back to Harry's office.

"Hermione what the hell are you doing?!" Harry hissed when they got to his office. He shut the door and locked it. He sealed his Floo connection and Ginny sat Hermione down in one of the chairs and stood behind her, hands on her shoulders.

"Harry, I can't go through with this. I can't. They're going to put me in Azkaban. I tell them I turned, they're going to ask what I did before. I either tell them I was the one killing prisoners for the last seven years or lie and say I was part of a colony. I'm dead if I walk into that room…I can't…Harry please don't make me do this…"

"Hermione, no one is going to kill you or put you in Azkaban. If you're the solution then you'll be forgiven. Anyone that can stop the attacks won't be touched."

"What about Malfoy? Lucius and Narcissa won't stop until I'm dead."

"I keep forgetting you weren't around for seven years…We don't have to worry about them."

"Why not?"

Ginny squeezed Hermione's shoulders. "The reason Draco became an Auror is the same reason I did, 'Mione. He wanted revenge. About a year after Diagon Alley they were having this huge party out at their place and a colony attacked. Draco fled. I was part of the unit that came in to uh…clean up. Both of his parents had been killed. I heard him swearing that night that he was going to become an Auror and kill as many of the vampires as he possibly could. Hell, he even asked me if he could watch and asked for advice, that's how desperate for revenge he was."

"That still doesn't change the fact that the majority of the Wizengamot will want me either dead or in Azkaban."

"You'll be fine, Hermione," Harry said as he shuffled papers around on his desk. "I'll be there to act on your behalf. As far as all of the prisoners go, Ron checked into it as far as he could and every single one of them was in for life without the possibility of appealing so really, you just kind of saved the Muggle taxpayers a bit of money. But like I said if this solution is real and it works with others then you're not in any danger."

"And if it doesn't? What if it doesn't work, Harry? What if I'm just a one of a kind case?"

"I think it will work and if I tell them that they'll listen. I will tell them you're well protected and they can't do anything to you because of what you might hold."

Ginny walked around to the front of Hermione's chair and knelt down in front of her. She took Hermione's hands into her own and kissed each of them.

"Sweetheart, listen to me," Ginny said, "I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, do you understand? Harry and Ron, too. We're going to get through this, just like we've gotten through the passed six months."

Hermione's eyes watered and she nodded. "I love you, Gin."

"I love you too 'Mione." Ginny cupped Hermione's face in her hands and kissed her. "You can do this. You're strong, I know you can do it. I'm going to be right there with you."

Hermione nodded again.

"Ron should be here in a minute," Harry said. He aimed his wand at the empty chair and it duplicated itself. Ginny pushed one of them right up next to Hermione's and held on to the brunette's hand.

"Any signs of the possibility of another big attack?" Ginny asked.

"Not at the moment, but there are still disappearances and a few showing up dead every now and then. It's only a matter of time, honestly. I hate to say it but at least with large attacks some of them are captured and that would be good for us to prove what we're about to say."

There was a knock at the door and Harry unlocked it and Ron stepped in. Ginny and Hermione both stood and hugged him.

"Sorry I'm late. All right, everyone?" he asked.

"We had a bit of a meltdown earlier but we're good now, thank you," Ginny said.

Harry checked his watch. "We've got a few minutes before we need to go. Ron, you have mustard on your tie."

"Oh bloody hell!" Ron said when he looked down. Ginny rolled her eyes. Harry rummaged around in his desk and tossed Ron a new tie.

"Can I have some water?" Hermione asked.

"I've got something better," Harry said. He pulled a flask out of his desk. "Take a shot of that."

"What is it?"

"Firewhiskey."

"You want me to get drunk and then testify?"

"One shot won't get you drunk."

Hermione shrugged and took a sip from the flask. She choked at the taste and handed Harry the flask back.

"I think we should get going," Ron said as he looked into the mirror on Harry's wall and straightened his tie. Harry checked his watch and nodded in agreement.

Ginny and Hermione stood. Ginny slipped an arm around Hermione's waist and they all exited Harry's office and headed for the lifts. They stepped out at Level 9 and made their way on the stairs to Level 10. They looked at the different doors until they found one with a piece of paper stuck to it.

_Mr. Harry Potter and Mr. Ronald Weasley  
Presenting research to the Wizengamot  
3.00_

Harry opened the door and they all filed in. There was a rectangular table in the middle of the circular room with four chairs at it. Harry took the left most chair, Hermione next to him, then Ginny and Ron at the opposite end from Harry. Harry shuffled his papers. Hermione looked around the room. It was large. A few of the Wizengamot members had assembled already. Slowly they all filed in. Ginny's fingers slipped in between Hermione's and she brought their hands to her mouth. She kissed the back of Hermione's hand and gave the brunette a reassuring look.

A few of the members looked at Hermione curiously. The rap of a gavel echoed through the room and Hermione looked to see not Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had been Minister when she had disappeared, but a rough looking man she did not recognize but whose name she had seen in _The Daily Prophet._

"Mister Potter, this had better be good," he said. "You completely bypassed the chairman of your department to get to me so what you've got had better be nothing short of spectacular or I'll sack you right here and now for wasting our time."

"Yes, Minister Lodwick," Harry said as he stood. "Trust me, what I have here is definitely spectacular. A miracle, you could even say."

"Get on with it Potter."

"I believe I've come up with something that could potentially ease and eventually even eliminate the vampire attacks."

"Their numbers are thinning, Potter. The Aurors are doing their jobs. Are you trying to get the lot of them fired?"

"Sir, I think there might be a more humane way to do this."

The Minister glanced at Ginny. "There is no reason to show them compassion after the horrific things they have done."

"What if we could turn them back? What if there was a way to treat them, sir?"

"Potter you are an idiot and you're wasting my time. You of all people should know that's impossible."

"Hypothetically speaking, Minister. Let's just say there were a way to turn them human again, what would happen?"

"Hypothetically speaking, Potter, they would be considered murderers."

Hermione squirmed in her seat and trembled.

"Sir, these beings don't have a _choice_. They have to drink blood. It causes excruciating pain if they don't."

"Unless you already have a way to turn them back we have nothing further to hear from you and you can pack your things."

"I do. I watched it happen before my eyes. I watched a vampire turn into a human."

The room started buzzing as the Wizengamot members whispered to each other.

"Can you prove it?"

"I can provide you three more witnesses and a Healer that examined after the fact. I can even provide you with the person in question if you can guarantee immunity from any punishment."

"Why did you not come forward with this before, Potter?"

"Because of your laws, sir. The laws you passed that would ensure the death of this person. If I had brought them forward they would have been killed and I wouldn't be standing here telling you this and providing the possibility of hundreds of people being reunited with their loved ones instead of getting a letter with your stamp on it sending apologies for their death."

A Wizengamot member stood and looked down at the table where the foursome sat. "Mister Potter, you are aware that by harboring this vampire you broke laws yourself?"

"I'm aware of that. But again, if this _person_ can provide the key to helping stop these attacks then I think that should be overlooked."

"And why should this person be provided immunity? What crimes have they committed?"

"This person was vampire for almost eight years. I think you know the crimes."

"They should get immunity after killing innocent people?"

"The people it took were by no means innocent. The person in question is the one responsible for the monthly attacks at the prisons. All of my reports will tell you that every single victim was in prison for life without any chance of appealing their conviction. All of them were guilty of incredibly heinous crimes. Their lives being taken from them in this way is absolutely no different than how the Ministry used to administer prisoners in Azkaban with the Dementor's Kiss."

The room again buzzed with noise and another member stood as the other sat down.

"I have a question for Miss Weasley," the short, sweet-looking woman said. Ginny stood. "As a former Auror what do you think of what Mister Potter is proposing?"

A laugh came from the opposite side of the crowd. "We all know that Weasley will have a biased opinion, Smith."

Ginny turned red. "I happen to think what Harry is proposing is fantastic. I witnessed the human turning from a vampire. It was scary as hell and no doubt painful for the person we're talking about but the end result was nothing short of a miracle. Even if I were still in the mindset of killing them before they had a chance to turn I would no doubt support trying to turn them instead of killing them if there was evidence that it could happen."

There was more buzz throughout the room and the gavel pounded again.

"What is it you want from us, Potter?" the Minister asked. Ginny sat back down.

"First and foremost I want lifetime immunity for the person in question."

"How do you know that the prisoners were the only ones that died at the hands of this person?"

"Because I trust them. When they were a vampire they protected my friends from other vampires and even killed their own to keep us all safe. If you will recall the cases of the two attacks at Arthur Weasley's home just outside of the village Ottery Saint Catchpole, the vampires that turned up dead at the scene were all taken down by the one we're discussing."

"And it killed a Ministry employee!" another member stood up and shouted. "It killed Draco Malfoy!"

"Malfoy got in the way!" Ron thundered. He stood. "Harry and I were there the night he died. That is when we apprehended the vampire. Malfoy not only threatened us but was seconds away from killing the vampire. It was his own damn fault he was killed because he didn't follow protocol. Harry and I did the research, we knew the vampire was going to be there and Malfoy found out and just got in the way. There was nothing we could do about it but if he'd minded his own damn business he would be alive right now. If you were trapped against a wall with someone holding a sharp stake to your chest you would try to get out of it, wouldn't you?"

The buzz in the room was even louder. Hermione started shaking and Ginny wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"It's okay love, it's okay," she whispered into Hermione's ear.

"Quiet!" the Minister yelled. His voice echoed through the room. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have the both of you thrown in Azkaban right now, Potter!"

"Because without us you're going to continue killing potentially innocent people! What if it were a member of your family, Minister? Would you rather have them killed or turned back into a human?! This case could potentially provide the key for it if you can just ensure me that the person will not be punished. You call Malfoy's death a murder. I call it self-defense. Any of us would've done the same. _You_ would have done the same."

"You give us what we need," Ron said, "and we could seriously make a difference. The Ministry has been getting a lot of grief because of these attacks. If you gave us the chance we could potentially change that. Your approach over the last eight years hasn't worked out like you thought it would has it? Why not try something new?"

"You just stood here and admitted to breaking several laws and you want us to forgive and forget and then grant you whatever you wish? Are the both of you insane?!"

"Not insane, sir," Harry said. "We just want things to change. We know we can change them. We can get the Ministry's image back if you would just cooperate."

"And if we don't?"

"I'm sorry to say that you might regret it, sir. People are getting angry. They want these attacks to stop. If they don't then I'm afraid there will be an uprising. Now, you can either help us or pour fuel on the fire. Word could leak out that someone has a cure and the Ministry isn't willing to look further into it and instead just keeps making the colonies angrier and angrier by killing them off. Is that really something you're willing to risk?"

The room was quiet and the Minister glared at Harry.

"Are you threatening me, Potter?"

"Just trying to make a point, Minister. You can throw me in Azkaban but keep in mind I have other people that could easily tell this story to whoever will listen."

"The four of you are dismissed until someone comes to find you."

Harry nodded and the other three stood. Ginny wrapped an arm around Hermione's waist and held on tight as they exited the room. Hermione and Ginny sat on a bench just outside the room, Harry and Ron leaned against the opposite wall. Harry was smiling.

"What the hell do you have to be happy for, Harry?" Hermione snapped.

"If he was going to fire us or have us thrown in Azkaban he wouldn't have let us leave. He would've done it on the spot."

They waited in silence for fifteen minutes. Someone opened the door to the room and they filed back in and sat down at the table. Harry looked at the new piece of parchment that was in front of him. He pushed it over to Hermione:

_Guarantee of immunity for Harry James Potter, Ronald Bilius Weasley and any parties they choose. All parties are forgiven of previous crimes and under the protection of the Ministry of Magic._

"Will that suffice, Potter?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"Do you have a list of other things you need?"

Harry produced a piece of parchment and walked to the front of the room and handed it to the Minister.

"I've got to say, Potter," the Minister whispered, "I'm quite impressed you had the guts to stand up to me like you did."

Harry smiled. "Thank you, sir. I won't let you down."

Harry walked back to the table in the center of the room.

"We'll take a look at your list and let you know, Potter."

Harry nodded.

"Now, to the matter of the vampire that turned human. We've guaranteed the person immunity. It would be nice to see it for ourselves."

Harry put a hand on Hermione's shoulder and she stood up. She shook. She wasn't sure her knees would hold her.

"H-Hermione Granger," she said.

"Granger…why does that sound familiar?"

"Her name is currently on a list of twenty-three that are considered missing by the Ministry from the attack on Diagon Alley that happened eight years ago," Harry said. "She's also a former employee of the magical creatures department."

"Okay then. Add her name to that immunity guarantee. Miss Granger…"

"I'm married, Minister."

Ginny smiled.

"Pardon me then, Mrs. Granger. Do you mind telling your story?"

Hermione nodded and took a deep breath. She told of the night in Diagon Alley, killing her attacker. The house, the newspapers, the prisoners, the attacks at the Burrow, Draco, being captured. Her fingers searched for Ginny's hand and the redhead held on. Hermione recounted the night of the turning. The burning, the pain, the fangs.

"And why did you turn back?"

Hermione tugged at Ginny's hand and she stood up.

"Because of her," Hermione said, nodding to Ginny.

Harry started speaking. "Ancient magic," he said. "You all know my story. My mother died for me and Voldemort couldn't kill me because of it. We think…we think it's something of the same concept. If we can re-unite the vampires with the ones they left behind, their family, as Hermione was re-united with her wife then that could be the key. Simply put: Love. Love and wanting to come back is what we think did it. Albus Dumbledore would agree with me."

"That's it? We capture them and put them in a room with their family and they turn back?"

"Pretty much so, yeah."

"We'll take a look at your other requests, Potter, and let you know."

"Thank you, sir."

"This session of the Wizengamot is dismissed. You're all free to go."


	24. Chapter 24

**-Chapter 24: Visiting Strangers-**

It was blistering hot the next day. Hermione came down the stairs in the mid-morning in an overly large t-shirt carrying a towel. Ginny and Rose were waiting in the kitchen with towels and a basket with their lunch in it. Ginny picked up the picnic basket and Hermione grabbed the towels. They each grabbed one of Rose's hands and made their way through the forest to the small pond.

Hermione stripped her t-shirt off and Ginny licked her lips as she looked over Hermione's figure. Hermione smiled.

"You gonna stare or swim?"

"I can do both."

"Come on!" Rose called from the edge of the dock where she was dangling her toes in the water. "It's hot!"

Ginny pulled off her shirt and she and Hermione walked out onto the dock. Ginny jumped in first and Rose followed. Hermione slipped in the water carefully and squealed when Ginny splashed her. Ginny and Hermione watched carefully as Rose swam around the pond. Ginny waded and watched Hermione splash with Rose and pick her up and twirl around. They stopped and Ginny heard them whispering and Rose looked at her with a slightly menacing smile. She knew that smile. It usually came around when Rose had been spending time with George.

Hermione and Rose swam over to Ginny and grabbed on to her and pulled her under the water. Rose squealed and laughed when Ginny came back up and laughed. Ginny grabbed a hold of Hermione's shoulders and pushed her under. Rose laughed even more. Ginny picked her up and held the young girl on her hip.

"Up for some lunch?" Ginny asked.

Rose nodded and Ginny lifted her up onto the dock. She hopped out and pulled Hermione up. They spread their towels out underneath a shade tree.

"Rosie," Hermione said, "What would you think of the three of us moving to a different house?"

"Why would we do that?"

"Well before you were born we had a house and we think it might be a good idea if we lived there."

"But I like living here. Gran and Grandad would be lonely."

"Sweetie, they've been taking care of us for a long time," Ginny said. "I think it's time they have time to themselves. And we can come visit whenever you want, I promise."

"What does the house look like? Do I get my own room?"

"It doesn't have as many rooms as the Burrow, there aren't any stairs. There's not as much grass and trees but there's plenty of space for you to play. It's closer to Harry and Luna's house in London which means closer to Diagon Alley."

"And of course you get your own room," Hermione added. "We can paint it any way you want. We'll get all new furniture and plenty of bookshelves."

Rose sat with a contemplative look on her face for a few minutes. Hermione and Ginny glanced at each other worriedly.

"If I can have a kitten I'll say yes," Rose said triumphantly.

Both women laughed and Rose grinned.

"We'll see about that, okay?" Hermione said. "When we get all moved in and everything is set up."

Rose sighed.

"Baby girl, we can't promise anything right now, okay?" Ginny said. "We will think about it though. We just want to get everything settled down first."

"That's what Mum said about my baby brother or sister."

Ginny choked on her water. Hermione laughed.

Rose fell asleep on Hermione's lap under the big shade tree. Ginny settled herself up next to Hermione and laid her head on the older brunette's shoulder.

"You think we should have another baby?" Ginny asked.

"I don't see why not. We're still pretty young and at least you're healthy."

"If you wanted to do it I'm sure you'd be okay. We can ask Cho if you'd like."

"I'll think about it," Hermione said with a smile. Ginny looked up at her and smiled.

……………

It was the twelfth of July. Hermione finished packing hers and Ginny's things up from their room at the Burrow.

"You ready?" Ginny asked from the doorway. "Luna's at the house already with Rose getting the rest of her things put away in her room."

"Did Bill finish the protective charms?"

"He's got to wait until you're there for a couple of them but other than that it's all ready."

"Are you sure about this, Ginny? There's still a lot of danger out there…the attacks last month were so close to London."

"I know. But with what we've gone through with you and how things are starting to change in the Ministry because of it…we'll get through it. Right now…Right now I really just want some kind of sense of normalcy, you know?"

Hermione nodded. She picked the bag up off the bed and walked over to her wife. She wrapped her free arm around the redhead's waist. Their foreheads touched.

"I love you, Ginny…"

The kiss was warm and gentle. Everything was perfect.

They landed in front of their house. It had been repainted and the lawn was perfectly manicured. They stepped inside the dwelling and they were met by Rose and Ginny's brother.

"Come see what Aunt Luna helped me do!" Ginny squealed. She grabbed both womens hands and led them to her room. It had been painted purple. Her white, wrought iron bed was in the corner farthest from the door. There were two white bookshelves almost filled with books in the corner to the left of the bed. Her Pygmy Puff was in its cage on a small white desk at the foot of the bed.

"Look, almost all the shelves are full! And I have parchment and ink and quills in here," Rose walked to the desk and opened the drawers. "And Aunt Luna even gave me some colored ink! Look! There's purple and red and blue and green and orange!"

"Luna you didn't have to do that," Ginny said to the blonde who was straightening things up on one of the shelves.

"Oh they were just some half-empty bottles I had laying around. Harry got me a deluxe color set for my birthday last month so I didn't need those anymore."

"Did you say thank you, Rosie?" Hermione asked.

"She did," Luna said.

"Rose why don't you see if you can go help Uncle Bill, okay?" Ginny patted the young girl on the head and she darted out of the room.

"Did you and Harry get it?" Hermione asked when Rose was out of hearing distance.

"Yes and he is so adorable I talked Harry into getting one of our own! Rose's is orange, ours is gray and black. They're just so playful! We've named ours Snorkack."

Hermione and Ginny both held back giggles.

"Perfect," Hermione said. "We really owe you guys for keeping it until her party Thursday night. Molly and Arthur got it a little bed and food and water dishes and some food. George is working on enchanted toys for it."

"She is going to go crazy," Ginny said. "I almost don't want to wait…"

"Love, we have to. We told her we would have to wait and see and if we give it to her the day we move in then she'll know she has us completely wrapped around her little finger."

"She kind of already does."

"But she doesn't know that."

Ginny sighed. "Good point."

……………

Rose was asleep on the couch with the tiny ball of orange fluff resting peacefully on her stomach. Ginny cleaned the stain out of the carpet where Ron had tripped over Rose who was crawling after the kitten and he spilled his punch. Hermione put the books her parents had given Rose onto the bookshelves in the young girl's room and set up the kitten's food bowls in the kitchen.

"You know that bed your mother got her for the cat is going to probably stay empty, right?" Hermione said when she came in from the kitchen.

"Oh I know." Ginny looked around the floor for anymore spots of punch. Hermione walked up behind the redhead and wrapped her arms around her waist and settled her chin on Ginny's shoulder.

"You produce pretty adorable kids, you know?" Ginny said with a smile.

"I can't argue with that."

"I think we ought to get her to bed."

Ginny broke free of Hermione's arms and walked over to the couch, Hermione followed. Hermione picked up the ball of fur and Ginny lifted Rose off the couch and carried her to her bedroom.

"Where's Snitch?" the sleepy girl asked when Ginny tucked the covers under her chin.

Hermione placed the still-sleeping ball of fur next to Rose on the bed and the young girl smiled and stroked her new pet.

"Mum?"

"Yeah sweetie?" both women answered simultaneously. They looked at each other and giggled.

"Thank you for Snitch. I love him." Rose smiled and yawned. She curled up and was back asleep before either woman could respond.

Hermione leaned down and kissed her daughter's forehead.

"You're welcome baby girl. Goodnight," she whispered.

Ginny kissed Rose's forehead and smiled at the sleeping girl. She and Hermione left the room quietly and left the door open a bit, just how Rose liked it. She looked at Hermione and shook her head. The brunette's eyes were threatening to spill over with tears.

"Really, 'Mione?"

"Oh hush! It's the first birthday I've gotten to be with her, okay?"

Ginny smiled and kissed the tip of Hermione's nose.

"Love you," the redhead said.

"Love you, too."

"Glass of wine before bed?"

"Sure."

The two women went to the kitchen. Ginny got two glasses from the glass front armoire.

"White, blush, or red tonight, love?"

"Don't we have bottle of white we opened at dinner with your parents the other night?"

Hermione pulled a bottle out of the wine rack from their locked cabinet reserved for alcohol.

"Just enough for two glasses, I think."

Hermione poured the wine and the two curled up on the sofa with their glasses. One of the toys George had enchanted for Rose's kitten zoomed across the floor. Hermione pulled grabbed her wand from the coffee table and aimed it at the toy.

"_Immobulus!"_

"Could be worse, I suppose. He could've given her a box of Whiz-bangs."

"Why do I have a feeling there's a story behind that?"

"Victoire's fifth birthday. Fleur almost killed him when half of them went off on accident…then she discovered Victoire wasn't even near the box when they went off and that Bill and Charlie were playing with them."

Hermione's laugh was cut off by a loud whistling sound and a light coming from the mantelpiece.

"Oh shit…" Ginny jumped up and looked up at the Sneakoscope that was going crazy. She grabbed her wand that was next to Hermione's on the coffee table and her silver-blue horse patronus shot out of it then disappeared, going to get Harry. Hermione grabbed her own wand and slowly stepped toward the window. Ginny glanced to the hallway and edged toward it.

"There's two of them," Hermione whispered. "All I can see are their black cloaks."

"What are they?"

"I don't know, Gin, I can't see in the dark anymore!"

A green flash came from the fireplace and Harry rushed out, wand at the ready. He was soon followed by Ron.

"Bill, George and Percy have been notified," Harry said. He looked out the window. Another flash came from the fireplace and George stepped out.

"What's happening?"

"Two cloaked figures, it looks like," Harry said.

"Get Rose, you two. Go back to Grimmauld," Ron said.

Another flash from the fireplace and Percy stepped out in his bathrobe, his hair was wet and still had a bit of shampoo in it.

Hermione followed Ginny down the hall and into Rose's room.

"Baby girl, wake up," Ginny said. She picked Rose up and held her close.

"What's going on?" Rose groaned.

"We're going to Uncle Harry's for a bit."

"What about Snitch?"

"I've got him sweetie," Hermione said. She picked up the ball of fur and they went back to the sitting room where Bill was now standing with the others.

"Go!" Harry hissed.

Ginny tossed a handful of Floo Powder in the fireplace and stepped in the green flames and Flooed to Grimmauld Place. Hermione tossed in a handful and stepped in. The last thing she saw before she said the words to send her away was a blast that tore a giant hole in the wall and three of the five men crashing to the floor from the blast.


	25. Chapter 25

**-Chapter 25: St. Mungo's-**

Ginny stepped out of the fireplace in the sitting room of Grimmauld with Rose clinging tight to her. Luna greeted them. Hermione stepped out seconds later holding onto Snitch. She was shaking.

"'Mione, what's wrong?"

"Before I Flooed…s-something happened. There…there was a blast. It tore a hole in the side of the house. I'm not sure who was hit by the impact but at least three of them were."

"Why didn't the spells work?" Ginny growled. "Why do the spells _never_ work?"

"Someone had to have found out about it, that's the only way."

Hermione sighed and sat down on the sofa. Ginny sat next to her, still holding Rose who was still half-asleep.

"Why don't the three of you try to get a little sleep?" Luna suggested.

"I doubt that's possible right now," Ginny said.

An hour later Ginny's head was at one end of the couch with Rose sleeping peacefully on top of her. Hermione was at the other end with Snitch on her stomach, the kitten purring. Neither woman was asleep. They just stared up at the ceiling. Luna was sitting in one of the armchairs staring at the fireplace. A silvery-blue Jack Russell terrier came running into the sitting room. Ron's voice spoke from it.

"Come to St. Mungo's."

……………

Just as Hermione stepped into the Floo there was a blast through the wall. Harry, Percy, and George were knocked to the floor.

"Who the hell are you?" Ron yelled.

"We only want the vampire," one of the figures said.

"There are no vampires here," Bill said. "Are you from the Ministry?"

"Your Ministry is a joke! Thinking that if they tell us they can turn us back that we'll surrender. We know what will happen if we step forward," the same one said.

"They really can help you," Ron said. "They can turn you back."

"Where is she?" the other cloaked figure hissed. "We know she's here. The one that killed the others! Where is she?"

"She turned back! She's the reason why the Ministry is saying you can turn back. I watched it!"

"Liar!"

One of the figures swooped down to Percy's body and held him up by the neck.

"Tell us where she is or he dies!"

"Tell us how you got here."

"We've been watching the other house. The one out in the middle of nowhere. It's amazing what people will say when they think no one else is listening. Your protective charms don't protect against sound, you know? Idiots." The one not holding Percy smirked.

"Fuck…" Ron muttered.

Percy screamed and a jet of red came from one of the wands of the men on the ground and the vampire and Percy flew back into the wall. Ron shot a stunner at the other one and Bill body-bound them on the floor.

George stood up and went over to Harry who was still unconscious. Bill walked over to Percy.

"Shit…that bastard bit him!"

"We have to get him to St. Mungo's now then. And let Audrey know, and Mum and Dad," Ron said. Out of his wand erupted three patronuses. He sent one to the Burrow, one to the hospital to retrieve Mediwizards and one to Percy's wife.

"What about Grimmauld?" George said.

"We'll wait until we all get to the hospital. We need Audrey and Mum and Dad there as soon as we can though. If we get them there while he's turning it will stop and reverse. There's not as much pain involved as a full turning-back."

"Hermione is in serious danger," Bill said. "I have a feeling these aren't the only ones that know."

"I vote we don't talk about it right now," Ron said, motioning to the two vampires on the floor. Bill nodded.

Four Mediwizards and Cho appeared outside of the house and stepped in through the giant hole in the wall.

"Hey, Cho. Thanks for coming with them," Ron said. "Two vampires, Percy is infected. Harry's unconscious."

"You all should go ahead, we'll take care of them." Cho scribbled on a piece of parchment and handed it to Ron. "Give this to the person at the front desk and she'll make sure you get in right away so you can come up to see Percy immediately."

"Thanks. We really owe you a lot, you know?"

Cho smiled and blushed slightly. "I'm happy to do it, Ron."

Ron smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. "You uh…you think maybe I could buy you dinner sometime?"

Cho nodded. "I'll come find you when we get back and we'll talk about it."

"Yeah…yeah…that would be good. I'll uh…I'll see you there then."

George was laughing hysterically now. He, Bill, and Ron walked out of the house. The two older men poked fun at their younger brother. They Apparated to the hospital and Ron gave the parchment to the attendant at the front desk and the three were immediately taken into a room and had their cuts mended plus George's broken wrist.

An attendant came to retrieve them to go see Harry who was awake although his mind was a bit cloudy about what had happened because of a concussion. When Ron told him he was rather disappointed that he missed out on all the action. Ron sent a patronus to Grimmauld Place and within fifteen minutes Hermione, Ginny carrying Rose, and Luna were at the hospital.

"Ginny you go in with Rose and see Harry," Bill said when he met them. "Hermione, I need to talk to you." Both women nodded and Ginny shut the door to Harry's room when she went in.

"They were there for me, weren't they?"

"Yeah."

"Who was it? Ministry? Random angry mob?"

"Vampires. We subdued them and they should be getting taken care of now but there is a definite possibility that more out there are that would prefer to see you dead."

"Fantastic. How did they get through the charms? That house is supposed to be invisible except…"

"One of them said they had been listening at the Burrow. All we can guess is that it heard Harry talking about it to the rest of us which essentially let them in on the secret."

"So what do we do?"

"There are a couple of options. We can repair the house and you can move back in and we put the charms back up and choose a different Secret-Keeper and see if that works or you can move elsewhere. I know Harry and Luna wouldn't mind you at Grimmauld Place. I would offer you Shell Cottage but with the third baby on the way we're packed in pretty tight. Obviously the Burrow isn't somewhere you should be, either."

"I'll talk to Ginny. How is everyone else?"

"George broke his wrist, Harry got a concussion, Ron's okay, Percy…well Percy got bitten. Mum, Dad, and Audrey are with him right now."

"Damn…"

"I know what you're thinking and it's not your fault, Hermione."

"Well if…"

"No. Stop right there. I won't listen to it."

Hermione nodded. "What would you do?"

"You guys start running now you may never stop. You stay where you are and they'll try to keep finding you. Neither option is good."

"What if…what if I left?"

"Hermione, if you do that to Ginny I will find you and kill you myself."

Hermione's jaw dropped a little and she nodded slightly. "O-okay."

"I'm serious, Hermione. Do not do that to her. She'd rather die by your side than have you leave again. Please don't do that to her."

"I won't. I promise, I won't."

"Good."

Bill opened the door to Harry's room and they both stepped inside. Harry was sitting up in the bed asking questions about the incident of course. Ginny was holding Rose in an armchair on one side of the bed, Luna was sitting in bed with Harry. Ron was standing at the foot of the bed and George was poking at the portrait on the wall by the door and making it swear.

"George, stop that! Your niece doesn't need to pick up any more of those words from you!" Ginny growled.

"Blame this guy!"

"George," Hermione said. "Just remember that when Angelina has your guys' baby that Ginny and I will be able to pay you back for anything you teach Rose."

George looked to Ginny who smiled and nodded. He stepped away from the portrait and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Harry…" Hermione said, stepping closer to the bed.

"Of course you can stay at Grimmauld Place for a while, Hermione."

"Thanks."

"Just until the house is fixed," Ginny said.

"Are you sure, love?"

"Yeah, Gin, you guys can stay at Grimmauld as long as you want."

"We'll be okay. We've got Sneakoscopes in almost every room, plans in place. We can't just wait until every single vampire that witnessed Hermione killing others is turned. There's no way of knowing who knows what or how many of them there are. We'd be living at Grimmauld until the entire population is gone."

"What about Snitch? Will he stay with us?" the sleepy girl in Ginny's arms roused.

"Of course he will," Luna said. "He and Snorkack will have plenty of fun playing together."

"Mkay."

Hermione sat on the arm of the chair Ginny was in and put a hand on the redhead's shoulder. Cho appeared in the doorway and Ron tripped over himself walking to the door to greet her.

"How are you?" he asked when he regained his composure.

"Is Ron drunk?" Hermione whispered to Ginny.

"He asked Cho out to dinner earlier tonight when she went to the house with the Mediwizards."

"So…his best friend was on the ground unconscious and his brother had just been bitten by a vampire but he asked out Cho Chang on a date?"

"Basically."

"Some things never change, do they?"

"Nope."

After Ron and Cho were done whispering in the doorway, Cho walked into the room.

"Percy's doing fine. He should be back to normal by morning but of course we'll keep him here for a couple of days."

"And the other two?" Harry asked.

"Working on finding out who they are and getting in contact with their families. Harry you should be able to go home in the morning. I've got to get back upstairs, I just wanted to check on things here. Ron, I'll see you Saturday night."

Ron turned bright red and grinned. "Saturday night," he repeated. He nodded and Cho smiled and left the room.

"Oi! I'm sitting here with a brain injury and you're making dates? With my ex-girlfriend, no less?"

"Sorry, mate. That was years ago, anyways. You're married. I'm taking Cho on a date."

Harry laughed and shook his head.

"Mum will go crazy when she finds out, you know?" George said. "She'll be asking Cho for grandchildren before the date happens if you tell her about it."

"Mum needs to settle down and enjoy the ones she's got."

"Harry, Luna, would it be all right if Ginny and I went ahead to the house now that we know everything is good here?"

"Of course," Harry said.

"Thank you," Ginny said. "Feel better, Harry."

Harry nodded. Hermione picked Rose up out of Ginny's arms and the redhead stood and followed the two brunettes out of the room to find a Floo connection.


	26. Chapter 26

**-Chapter 26: New Job-**

Hermione stepped out of the Floo in the sitting room of Grimmauld Place with Rose. The young girl immediately hopped out of Hermione's arms to get her kitten that was curled up on the couch next to Snorkack. Ginny stepped out of the fireplace moments later.

"Which room?" Hermione asked. She took Rose's hand and the three of them started heading for the stairs.

"Second floor, biggest bed aside from Harry and Luna's."

Rose crawled into the big bed the kitten pounced around and settled down up next to the young girl's chest. Ginny settled in on one side, Hermione on the other.

"Mum?"

"Hmmm?" Hermione responded.

"Are we gonna move again?"

"We're only going to be here until the house is fixed and safe again then we'll go back."

"Okay. I like my room there." Rose yawned.

"Go to sleep baby girl."

"Mkay."

……………

Harry was back the next morning and immediately contacted a builder he knew to get started on Hermione and Ginny's house right away. He was angry that Cho said he couldn't go back to work for a week so he spent his time working on turning the other room on the third floor into a nursery.

"Guys look at this!" Harry came running into the sitting room where Hermione and Ginny were being entertained by Rose playing with the kittens and their toys. Harry tossed them a copy of _The Daily Prophet_. "We finally got on the front page!"

Sure enough, there on the front page was a picture of rows of beds in St. Mungo's with turning vampires and a full front page article on the details of the turnings along with an advertisement for jobs at the hospital to assist.

"This is amazing, Harry," Hermione said. "I'm glad they finally got it printed!"

Ginny looked intently at the advertisement.

"It is! And for once they didn't distort anything. It's the plain and simple truth, all of it."

"Hermione," Ginny said, she pointed to the advertisement, "I'd like to maybe go work for them."

"Are you sure, Ginny? I thought you didn't want to work until Rose went to school."

"That was before everything happened. I really think this is something I could do. It…it would help, you know? With…with the guilt…"

Hermione nodded. "If it's something you really want to do then you know I'll support you one hundred percent." She ran her fingers through Ginny's hair and kissed her cheek.

Ginny started working a week later. Her first day she came back to Grimmauld Place she was met by the fireplace by Rose who almost tackled her and Hermione who greeted her with a kiss.

"So? How did it go?" Hermione asked. Ginny smiled.

"Fantastic, I love it. Right now I'm just tending to the ones that have already turned. It's amazing to hear some of their stories. One of the men I talked to said he was bitten over twenty-five years ago and they found his wife who had never re-married. His turning back took a while, almost three days for the complete turning and he was unconscious for a week after that. They have three sons and he has seven grandchildren that he's getting to know. It's just amazing!"

Hermione smiled. "I'm happy for you, Gin. Why don't you go upstairs and get changed into something more comfortable and I'll get us something to drink and you can unwind a bit before dinner?"

Ginny excitedly kissed Hermione and ran to the stairs.

……………

It was the ninth of August.

"Wanna try this again?" Hermione said when she and Ginny settled down on the couch with glasses of wine their first night back in the house. Ginny spread her legs out on the couch and Hermione settled herself in between them leaning back against the redhead.

"There are a lot of things I'd like to try tonight," Ginny said with a smirk.

"You think you can just get me a little tipsy and have your way with me, hm?"

"I was hoping to, yes."

Hermione smiled and finished off the rest of her wine and set her glass on the coffee table.

"So what did you have in mind Mrs. Weasley?"

Ginny set her glass down on the table with Hermione's and picked up her wand. She waved it around and the lights went dim.

"A little something like this…"

Ginny tossed her wand back on the table and started kissing Hermione's neck.

"Mmmm, good idea."

"Oh just wait, love."

Ginny's left hand roamed over Hermione's stomach and pushed under her t-shirt and cupped her breast.

"Sh-should we take this to the bedroom?" Hermione gasped. Ginny rolled the woman's hard nipple in her fingertips.

"No," the redhead whispered. "I want you right here, just like this."

"N-noise…"

"Taken care of when I dimmed the lights. Just relax baby. Enjoy the ride."

Hermione bit her lip and laid her head back on Ginny's shoulder and pushed herself as close as she could get. Ginny continued peppering the brunette's neck with kisses while her right hand wrapped around Hermione's waist and came to rest on her stomach. Hermione moved her hips and her backside ground into Ginny causing the woman to moan. Ginny's hand that was resting on Hermione's stomach inched lower and slipped underneath the waistband of the woman's sweatpants.

Hermione spread her legs allowing Ginny plenty of access. Ginny pushed her hand between Hermione's legs and ran a finger over Hermione's clit causing her to moan. She pushed down on the bud and started running her fingers in circles around it, occasionally running over it. Hermione reached one arm back and ran her fingers through Ginny's hair. Ginny slid her fingers lower and pushed at Hermione's entrance. The brunette lifted her hips off of the couch at the sensation and Ginny took the opportunity to push two fingers in as far as she could. Hermione whimpered and pushed herself back against Ginny again. Ginny ran her fingers back up to Hermione's clit and the brunette growled. She quickly turned herself over on her knees and hovered over her wife and locked lips with the redhead. She put one arm on either side of Ginny's head, holding herself up on the armrest of the couch.

Ginny shoved her hand back into Hermione's sweatpants and plunged two fingers in deep and Hermione moaned against her mouth. Her other hand went to the small of Hermione's back and started guiding the brunette to move her hips. Ginny kept her hand stationary and Hermione began riding the fingers inside of her. Hermione pulled out of the kiss and Ginny watched her face intently as Hermione shut her eyes tight and bit her lower lip. She was close. Ginny pushed her hand to meet Hermione's rhythm and curled her fingers inside, dragging the tips over Hermione's g-spot.

"Oh GOD! Ginny! Oh…oh…oh gods! Fuck!"

Hermione's arms started shaking and she bucked her hips faster. Ginny kept thrusting when Hermione froze and her toes curled and her muscles tensed up. Hermione's slit tightened up around her fingers, pulsating, holding on. Ginny gave one last thrust and Hermione gave one last scream before her arms gave out and she collapsed on top of the redhead.

"Ginny...gods…"

Ginny smiled and pulled out her hand that was pinned between the two of them and wrapped it around to meet the other that was still resting on the small of Hermione's back.

"Do you have any idea how incredibly gorgeous you are when you come for me, love?"

Hermione whimpered. She was still panting. Her heart raced. Her mind became cloudy and she started drifting off to sleep with the sensation of Ginny rubbing her back. She jerked awake and Ginny jumped, startled.

"What's wrong 'Mione?"

"Something bit me!" Hermione looked down to the end of the couch where one of her feet was dangling off and there next to it, looking very proud of himself, was Snitch. "Why is it that things always like to bite me?"

"Because you're delicious."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "How long was I asleep?"

"Not long, fifteen minutes maybe."

"Sorry."

"It's okay love. You're adorable when you sleep so I didn't mind it."

Hermione kissed Ginny's neck and ran one hand up the redhead's shirt and held a breast in her hand.

"How about…I make it…up to you…" Hermione said between kisses. She rolled Ginny's nipple between her fingers and the redhead moaned and nodded her head.

"Mum?"

Hermione yanked her hand out of Ginny's shirt and sat up so quickly she fell off the couch and hit the floor with a thud.

"Oh my god 'Mione are you okay?" Ginny sat up. Hermione sat up and blinked a few times.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Might have a bruise in the morning." Hermione stood and rubbed her hip. "Rose what's wrong?"

"I heard a noise outside my window. It scared me."

Ginny grabbed her wand and walked over to the young girl who was clutching a stuffed rabbit tight to her chest.

"Stay here and I'll go check it out okay?"

Rose nodded and Hermione extended her hand to her daughter. "You know when I got scared my mum would always make me some hot chocolate."

Rose smiled and took Hermione's hand and the two went to the kitchen. Rose sat in one of the chairs at the kitchen table and watched Hermione closely as the woman filled up the kettle and lit the stove and started the water boiling. Ginny came into the kitchen and sat down next to Rose.

"It's windy outside and there's a tree branch up next to the window," Ginny said. "I think it was just tapping on the glass and that's what you heard, okay sweetie?" Rose nodded. "I put a silencing charm on it so you won't hear it anymore."

After the three of them finished their hot chocolate, Hermione and Ginny got Rose settled back into bed and Ginny went back to the kitchen to clean up. As she was reaching to put the mugs away she felt Hermione's arms wrap around her waist and hold her tight. She closed the cabinet door and turned to face her wife and smiled. Hermione's hands came to rest on Ginny's backside and she leaned in and kissed the redhead.

"Mmmm kitchen sex," Ginny said with a smile when Hermione pulled away. "Been a while."

"Right before you hit the third trimester if my memory serves me right."

Hermione moved one hand up Ginny's back under her shirt and around to her front, gently cupping her breast. Ginny braced herself up against the counter and let her head fall back. Hermione took the opportunity to kiss all over Ginny's neck and pull her hips in close. She pushed one leg in between Ginny's and pressed her thigh into the woman against the counter. Ginny moaned and one of the hands that was holding her up moved to Hermione's back.

Hermione pulled away and slipped her hand out of Ginny's shirt and trailed it down to the waistband of the redhead's sweatpants. Ginny smiled and gave an approving moan. Hermione's other hand moved up under Ginny's shirt and rested between her shoulder blades. She pushed her fingers under the elastic waistband and down between Ginny's legs.

Ginny gasped and buried her head into Hermione's shoulder when she felt warm fingers slip over her clit. She gripped onto the countertop and Hermione's back. Hermione pushed at Ginny's clit and then gently started fondling it with her fingertips. Ginny pushed her hips at Hermione's fingers, her body aching for more contact. Hermione read the signals and pushed harder, Ginny moaned into her shoulder.

"Oh gods, 'Mione…"

Hermione only smiled and slid her hand lower. Knowing what was coming Ginny braced herself against the counter. Hermione thrust two fingers deep inside of her lover and Ginny bit her lip to keep herself from yelling. Hermione pulled out and thrust in again, deep and hard. Hermione continued thrusting, Ginny's hips matched her every move. She kept her head buried into Hermione's shoulder to muffle the loud moans and screams.

Hermione pushed in deep again and pressed her fingers against Ginny's g-spot eliciting a yell and string of swears from the redhead. Hermione smiled and kept pushing, kept thrusting.

"Fuck…fuck…Hermione…I'm gonna come…gods…"

Ginny's muscles burned and she wasn't sure she would be able to hold herself up. She gripped onto Hermione's back tight and bucked her hips a few more times before letting out a long, deep yell into Hermione's shoulder. Hermione kept thrusting when Ginny's muscles started pulsating around her fingers. She didn't stop until the redhead fell back against the counter and went almost limp. Hermione held her up and Ginny managed to wrap her other arm around the brunette who almost had to carry her to their bedroom.

Both women collapsed on the bed and Hermione pulled Ginny's sweatpants off of her. The redhead gave an appreciative smile. Hermione tugged at Ginny's shirt and pulled it off then grabbed the black sport bra that was at the end of the bed and helped Ginny tug it over her chest. Hermione settled on her side next to Ginny and pulled the blankets up around them. She laid her head on the redhead's chest and draped an arm over her pale stomach.

"You're amazing, you know that?" Ginny sighed.

"You're pretty spectacular yourself."

"I hope you know that when I tell you I love you I mean it. Every single time, I mean it with everything I have, 'Mione."

"I know you do, Ginny. I think it's pretty evident." Hermione smiled and kissed Ginny's chest. "I love you, too."


	27. Chapter 27

**-Chapter 27: The End-**

Hermione rolled over and smiled at the woman next to her who was still sleeping peacefully. It was the eleventh of August. Hermione swept Ginny's hair away from her neck and started pressing her lips against the pale skin. Ginny groaned and rolled away from Hermione. The brunette pushed herself up against Ginny's back and wrapped her hands around the redhead's waist and continued kissing at her neck and down her spine.

"No work today," Ginny groaned. "Sleep."

"Happy birthday, love."

"Mmmhmm. Sleep."

"I've been going back and forth about what to get you…"

"Baby," Ginny rolled over to face Hermione, "I don't know what ungodly hour of the morning it is but I'm fairly certain we have all day to talk about this."

"Fine."

Ginny rolled back over and Hermione smiled. Ginny shifted a few times and Hermione waited patiently. In only a couple of minutes Ginny flipped back over.

"Okay, you win, 'Mione. What'd you get me?"

"Oh no, you wanted to sleep. I'll tell you later." Hermione smirked.

"Please." Ginny stuck out her lower lip and widened her eyes.

"Well," Hermione said. She pulled Ginny close to her. "How does a romantic weekend getaway sound? Leave on Friday when you get home from work, come back Sunday night."

"That…sounds…fantastic. You have a place in mind?"

"My parents' vacation house on Mersea Island. Not too far away but just far enough. They've already said we can use it as long as they get to keep Rose. And Harry said he'd equip my parents with what they need to make sure nothing happens or if something does happen that we'll know about it right away."

"You're amazing."

"I know." Hermione smiled. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Waffles."

"Blueberry?"

"You know me too well."

……………

Hermione and Ginny stumbled in the front door of the vacation house. Both were soaked to the bone. The moment they stepped inside Hermione pulled Ginny's dress off of her and the redhead stepped out of her underwear and shivered.

"I c-can't believe y-you t-talked me into s-skinny dipping!" Ginny's teeth were chattering. "We m-might as well have kept our d-dresses on!"

"I d-didn't know the w-waves would get to our c-clothes!"

Hermione peeled her own dress and underwear off and grabbed a blanket that was on the back of the sofa. She wrapped it around the both of them and they made their way to the plush rug in front of the fireplace. She lit a fire and the pair lay on the rug facing each other still wrapped in the blanket.

"I went to the hospital and talked to Cho the other day," Hermione said.

"Why didn't you come up and see me?"

"I didn't want you to know I was there."

"You going to tell me why you were there and didn't tell me about it?"

Hermione smiled. "I talked to her about the possibility of me having a baby."

Ginny's face lit up. "You're sure?"

"I am."

"Well what did she say?"

"We go in next week to get started. I was the first to turn back, why not the first to have a baby afterwards?"

Ginny pulled Hermione in close to her and pressed her lips to the brunette's.

"I love you, Hermione."

"I love you, too Gin."

……………

It was the twenty-eighth of November. The women were awoken out of their bed by a loud crash outside and the Sneakoscope on their bedside cabinet spinning and whistling loudly. Ginny grabbed her wand and her bathrobe. Their bedroom door swung open and Rose ran inside and jumped up on the bed into Hermione's arms.

Ginny looked out the window and watched as two cloaked figures walked around, looking blankly at the house. She muttered an incantation and listened closely as the Super-Sensory charm allowed her to hear the conversation.

"It's supposed to be here!"

"No it isn't! There's nothing here! I told you I was right!"

"I was with the other two when they heard all of the humans talking about it. It's _here_. It has to be…If we don't find her tonight then we never will! I was the only one there with the other two, if we fail at this tonight then it's over."

"Well obviously it isn't here. Maybe they destroyed the house. Maybe she was killed."

"We'll never know. Bloody humans."

"You think what they say is true? What if it's true? What if they were turned back like we heard?"

"Go ahead and offer yourself up then!"

Ginny shot a patronus out of her wand and sent it to the Ministry. She watched as the two cloaked figures paced outside of the house arguing.

"Come on…" she groaned. "Hurry up…"

"What's going on?" Hermione whispered.

"One of them knows we're supposed to be here but neither of them can see the house. They're pretty confused."

"Finally the damn charms work like they're supposed to…"

Rose gasped and looked up at Hermione.

"You said…"

"I'm sorry sweetie."

There were flashes of bright light outside and crashes outside followed by Harry's voice.

"Ginny? Hermione?"

"In here, Harry!" Ginny called out.

"Are you guys okay?" Harry hugged Ginny and looked over to Hermione who was still on the bed.

"We're fine, Harry," Ginny said.

"Are you sure? Hermione…the baby?"

"We're fine, Harry."

Ginny watched out the window as the Aurors Disapparated.

"I think they might be the last ones that know where we are."

"What? How do you know?"

"I heard one of them say that there were only three listening the night they heard the secret and he was one of them. The other two were the ones that came a few months ago."

"So…it's over?" Hermione asked. "I mean…we'll be okay? If no one else knows then I'm safe, aren't I?"

"Kind of. Obviously there might still be some who saw you battling us at the Burrow but I think as long as you don't go out at night things will be okay. We'll still keep the protections in place, of course."

Hermione nodded. Ginny hugged Harry again and thanked him. He headed back to the sitting room to Floo out. Ginny sat down on the bed and wrapped her arm around Hermione's waist.

"Looks like we're on the road back to that 'getting normal' you were talking about," Hermione said with a smile.

……………

It was the fifth of March. Hermione and Ginny sat in Cho's office at St. Mungo's.

"Cho you are sure? Like one hundred percent sure?" Ginny said. Her jaw remained slightly open. She held Hermione's hand and the brunette held on to her swollen stomach.

"Absolutely sure."

"How do you know? How can you tell? Maybe it's just…"

"Ginny, remember that I did work in the maternity ward for a few years. Hermione may be my first expectant mother as a patient in a while but I know these things. Your mother will probably tell you the same thing if Hermione tells her what she told me."

"Mum already made the suggestion but we didn't think she could possibly be right."

"Your mother has had seven children; I'd trust her knowledge more than my own."

"Are you okay, 'Mione?"

"Of course I'm okay! I just really didn't expect…I mean we kind of only planned for one."

Ginny shook her head and smiled. "Twins," she sighed. "We're having twins…" She put her hand on Hermione's stomach.

"Rose is going to be ecstatic." Hermione smiled.

"Looks like we'll have a bit more work in converting the den into a nursery."

……………

It was the first of September.

"Hermione come on and get the rucksack! We've got to get going or Rose is going to miss her train!" Ginny called.

Hermione grabbed the rucksack out of the middle of their van and slung it over her shoulder. She hurried along, catching up with Ginny who was waiting with the stroller containing two red-haired toddlers. Hermione grabbed the trolley that held Rose's trunk, bag and cage with her tiny owl. They hurried through the station and ran onto Platform 9 ¾ just behind another family.

"What house do you suppose I'll be in?" Rose asked as they were walking along the train looking for Ginny's brother, Bill.

"That's up to the Sorting Hat, sweetie," Hermione said when they finally stopped.

"You were in Gryffindor, right?"

"Both of us were," Ginny said. She wrapped her arm around Hermione's waist.

"What if I'm not?"

"Then you're not." Hermione knelt down in front of her daughter. "It doesn't matter what house you're in, Rosie. You're going to make friends that will last you a lifetime. You'll learn more than you ever thought possible. You're going to be just fine no matter what house you're in, understand?"

Rose nodded and Hermione pulled her into a tight hug.

"I love you, Rose. You have a good term and we'll see you at Christmas, okay?"

"O-okay Mum." Rose held back her tears. Hermione stood and Rose knelt down to the stroller and kissed each of her twin brothers on the top of the head. "Don't get into my ink set again, Michael," she said to the one in the front. He squealed and smiled. "And Malcom you keep him out of trouble." The boy in the back seat of the stroller jabbered incoherently and smiled.

Ginny knelt down and Rose hugged her tight.

"You're going to be just fine, baby girl," Ginny said. Rose put a hand on Ginny's stomach.

"Promise me you'll send a letter if the baby comes before I get home?"

"Chances are you'll be here since it's due on Christmas."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you too, Rosie."

Ginny stood and walked Rose to the train and helped her take the first step up. She walked back to Hermione and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"You think she'll be okay?" Hermione asked.

"She'll be fine," a voice from behind said.

"Bill!" Ginny shrieked. She hugged him, Hermione did the same.

"Victoire was the same way when she left. Took her all of a week to stop writing to us every day because she was so busy with her new friends."

"Don't tell us that, Bill," Hermione said. "I'd like to think she can balance friends with writing to us every day."

"I'll give you a thousand Galleons right now if you can honestly tell me you wrote your parents every single day, Hermione. I know Ginny didn't."

"That's not the point, Bill…"

The man laughed and the train let out a whistle. Hermione and Ginny waved excitedly at Rose who was hanging out one of the windows.

"Are you going into the hospital today?" Hermione asked Ginny as they walked out of the station.

"No, I told them not to expect me. There's not much work to do today anyway except get a few more testimonies ready for the seminar next month that Harry is giving in the States about the success we've had here with the second turnings."

Hermione smiled. "I was thinking the other day…Dumbledore would be proud of all of you with all the progress you've made with this." Hermione lifted one of the twins into the van.

"I just wish the experiments with the werewolves would've gone better."

"You knew it wouldn't work, Ginny. Tonks and Lupin proved…"

"I know, it's just frustrating."

"It's not your fault and you know it." Hermione buckled in the other twin and took the stroller to the back of the van and hoisted it in. Ginny got into the passenger seat and Hermione came around to the driver's side. Ginny wrapped her hand around the back of Hermione's neck and ran her fingers through her hair.

"I love you, 'Mione," Ginny whispered before leaning over and pressing her lips to the brunette's forehead.

"I love you too, Gin."

Everything. Every touch. Every kiss. Every word. Everything was because of love. One simple word. One concept. It changed their world.

I honestly didn't know how to end this. This was the best I could come up with. I know it just kind of stops but my brain completely ran out of ideas. Thanks for sticking it out though =)


End file.
